Rising Phoenix
by ninofchaos
Summary: A person saves Naruto after a few villagers attacked Naruto at the age of 7. The person offers to train Naruto to become a powerful Shinobi. NarutoKyuubi Chapters 14 Edited
1. Chapter 1

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: Even though I've stopped writing new chapters for a while, I still have about nine days to fix a few things with my chapters that I have and add a few extra things in the story. Some of the things that I'll add or change is how Hidden Leaf will change into Konoha and most of the names will include honor fics so that this story can have a somewhat Japanese feel to it.**

**Summary: A person saves Naruto when Naruto was being beaten up at the age of 7. The person trains Naruto to become a powerful shinobi. Naruto will be OOC as will Kyuubi because in this story, Kyuubi is a girl. Naru/Kyuu for sure while other pairings are unknown at this time.

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**_Rising Phoenix_**

Today was an ordinary day in Konoha Village. Naruto left his apartment early to head for Ichiraku's in order to get some ramen before heading out to the ninja academy. Naruto had enlisted in the academy just a week ago and even though the teachers don't like him like the rest of the villagers, Naruto was still eager to learn. On the way to Ichiraku's, Naruto heard a scream coming from a nearby alley and went to investigate.

Naruto came to a dead end and saw that nobody was there. Naruto turned around and saw that there were several villagers blocking the way out. Naruto saw that they were armed with weapons like chains, poles, and one of the villagers even had a frying pan.

"What do you want?" Naruto said in a semi fearful voice.

"We're doing this village a favor by getting rid of its most hated demon." One of the villagers replied, glaring at Naruto with absolute hatred.  
'Those eyes, every single adult but one in this entire village gives me those frightening cold eyes, and what does he mean by demon? I'm no demon.' Naruto thought to himself.

The villagers saw that Naruto was in deep thought and took advantage by attacking him before Naruto had any chance to react. The villager that struck first hit Naruto in the stomach with some steel chains sending Naruto down on his knees. The other villagers followed and attacked using the weapons that were available to them.

Naruto was soon covered in bruises and blood and was having trouble keeping himself conscious.

"Hey you, what do you think you're doing?" a voice asked from behind the villagers.

The villagers turned around and saw a man wearing a black cloak.

"I ask you again, what do you think you're doing?" the man asked.

"That's none of you're business." One of the villagers replied, the villager then turned around and kicked Naruto in the midsection.

"It looks like you're hurting an innocent boy." The man replied calmly.

"Innocent? This boy?" one of the other villagers replied.

"He's nothing more than a demon." Another villager replied.

"The village will call us heroes for getting rid of the monster." A third villager responded.

'Arashi you stupid fool. What made you think that these ignorant villagers would ever see Naruto as a hero?' the man thought sadly.

"If you continue to harm that boy, you'll be executed for your crimes." The man told to the villagers.

"I doubt that." The leader of the group replied. "The village council hates the demon with a great passion. They easily have the power to make sure that we won't be executed."

"I guess it's time for all of you to meet your maker." The man spoke in an icy voice.

The villagers didn't know what the man meant and before they could do anything, all of the people who attacked Naruto were killed in a blink of an eye.

Naruto was wondering what was going on because during the beating, both his eyes were swollen shut and because of those beatings, he was at the point where he couldn't move.

The man looked at Naruto and saw that Naruto was still conscious. The man casted a sleeping technique and Naruto fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

The third Hokage was busy dealing with paperwork early in the morning until he was interrupted by a member of the ANBU.

"Hokage-sama, eight dead bodies have been located in one of the alleys here in the village. We checked the bodies to find the cause of their deaths were and we found that their deaths were caused by a single strike to the heart with what we believe to be sword of some kind." The ANBU member replied.

The ANBU member gave the Hokage a report on their current findings with the bodies so far. The Hokage read the reports and looked at the ANBU member. He saw that the ANBU member was acting a little bit scared because of what was stated in the reports.

"Calm down, I'll send ANBU teams 4, 8, and 16 out to look for the killer. Rest assured that the culprit will be caught. Also, make sure that nobody Chuunin level or lower know anything about this for now, we don't want to have a riot on our hands right now." The Hokage ordered.

"Yes Hokage-sama." The ANBU member replied.

The ANBU member left the room leaving via teleportation technique and the third Hokage alone in the room.

'Looks like the Raising Phoenix is here in Konoha. I wonder what he wants in a place like this.' The third pondered.

* * *

A day later, Naruto woke up in an unfamiliar environment with all of his injuries healed. He looked around saw a man with blue, untamed hair reading a book from across the room. He had a lean build and was dressed in normal clothing. He also saw that there was a large katana that was beside the chair that the man was sitting on. The man noticed that Naruto was looking at him and closed his book.

"Hello, are you the boy who claims that he's going to be Hokage someday?" the man asked.

Naruto looked at the man strangely and answered in his usual loud voice.

"Yep, that's me. Uzumaki Naruto, the man who will one day become Hokage."

"Tell me something, why do you want to be the Hokage for a village that treats you like dirt?" the man asked.

"I want to become Hokage so that I can surpass all the previous Hokages, especially the fourth; that way, I'll make the village recognize how strong I am." Naruto replied enthusiastically.

"A good goal." The man replied. "Kid, since I've taken a liking to you, why don't you train with me for the next five years. Right now, there's no way for you to improve with the way things are going in the village and with me, I can train you to become the strongest in the entire world."

"Um, who are you?" Naruto asked, realizing that he didn't even know the man's name. Naruto saw the man chuckled after he spoke.

"My name is Mitsurugi Shinta, but around the entire continent, I'm also known as the Raising Phoenix." Shinta replied.

"Rising Phoenix? What's that?" Naruto asked.

Shinta merely blinked.

"You mean to tell me that you've never heard of the Raising Phoenix?" Shinta asked, a little shocked at finding someone who hasn't heard of him.

"Nope." Naruto replied honestly. "Nobody was around to tell me stories about anything." Naruto continued in a sad voice.

"Why don't I tell you then what I'm all about?" Shinta asked.

"Yeah sure." Naruto replied while nodding his head.

"Okay, first off, I'm known as the Raising Phoenix. My level of respect, actually, my level of fear, is way above that of the White Fang of Konoha or the Sannin. I'm considered to be stronger than the third Hokage who was called 'The Professor,' and the third Kazekage who was known for his Iron Sand Technique.

"The reason why I'm called the Raising Phoenix is because my fighting style is called the Phoenix Style and I was called 'Rising' because I was once considered dead and I was somehow resurrected.

"Other than that, I belong to no village. In my spare time, I like to read and create new techniques."

"That's really neat." Naruto responded. "I wish I could tell you a bit about myself, but all that I can tell you about myself is that I was orphaned since birth and I'm hated by all except for the old man."

Shinta knew immediately to who the 'old man' was.

"So, tell me, do you wanna stay here for a few years and train with me?" Shinta asked.

Naruto thought it over for a few minutes and gave his decision.

"Sure I'll stay. It's not like anyone other than the old man will miss me anyway."

"Why don't you rest for tonight and we'll get started early in the morning?" Shinta suggested.

Naruto nodded his head and saw that Shinta had another thing to say.

"Before you rest for the evening however, I need to speak to you about something important. For now, just rest. If you can't rest, read a scroll or something."

Shinta then pointed to where a bookcase was filled with books and scrolls.

"Talk to you later, I have to deal with a few things with the third in order to make sure that he doesn't send search parties out to look for you." Shinta spoke, and before Naruto could continue, Shinta disappeared in a flash of fire.

'Let's see, I could either sleep or learn a new technique.' Naruto thought. 'I doubt I'll get any sleep for a while so I guess I should learn a new technique.'

Naruto went over to the bookcase and picked out one scroll. Naruto opened the scroll and read the technique that was listed in the scroll.

'Shadow Replication eh, this will be interesting.' Naruto thought with glee.

* * *

Over at the Hokage's office, the third just sent off the three teams to look for the Rising Phoenix. The third sighed and looked at the piles of paperwork that he had to sign because of what the Rising Phoenix did earlier this morning and also because of the leftover work he _accidentally_ forgotten to do last night.

'Arashi, why did you have to die and leave me to deal with the paper work?' the third thought.

After the third finished thinking, his secretary came in and he suppressed a groan because she was carrying even more paperwork. The secretary placed the papers over the pile he already had to deal with and left the office.

From behind the door to the third's office, the secretary could have sworn that the third was sobbing because of the pile of paperwork that he had to do.

"Sobbing doesn't really suit you." A voice said from behind the third.

The third didn't even bother to turn around because he knew who it was.

"Phoenix-dono, what are you doing here in Konoha?" the third asked with a little bit of fear and respect.

"Nothing much really, I thought I'd come here to see how things are since last time I came. I'm appalled at how the villagers treat Naruto just because he's one of the Jinchuuriki, a carrier of one of the nine great demons." Shinta replied.

"There's not much that I could do about that without having Konoha split into two or more factions." The third responded sadly.

"Did you know that Naruto was close to being killed this morning?" Shinta asked.

"What do you mean?" the third asked very seriously.

"The reason why I killed those eight villagers this morning was because they were all ganging up on Naruto and they were also using weapons like chains and poles, heck, one of them even had a frying pan." Shinta answered, chuckling a little when he mentioned the frying pan.

The third sighed and wondered what he would do next.

"If you're wondering about Naruto, I've taken a liking to him and because of that, he'll be my apprentice and he'll be the next successor of the all mighty Phoenix Style." Shinta replied after a minute of silence.

"I see, if you're going to do that, bring him here when he's twelve so that he can take the Genin exams and become one step closer to achieving his dreams. I'm waiting for him to become Hokage so that I don't have to deal with the paperwork anymore." The third requested, groaning a little at the mention of paperwork.

"Not a problem." Shinta replied.

Shinta left the room almost immediately in a flash of fire and returned to where Naruto was currently at.

* * *

Naruto was busy dealing with the Shadow Replication technique when from out of nowhere, Shinta appeared. Naruto was scared half to death and jumped back. He summoned two Shadow Replications without actually thinking and had the two of them attack. Shinta dispelled the two Shadow Replications with ease and looked at Naruto with great respect.

"I see that you decided to learn a new technique." Shinta spoke after destroying the two replications.

"Oh, it's you. Yeah, I decided that I couldn't sleep so I just grabbed one of the scrolls and started doing what was instructed. I just finished the technique when you appeared from out of nowhere." Naruto said in his normal tone.

"I see, and how was it that you could mold chakra when you just entered the ninja academy a week ago?" Shinta asked, remembering that new students could enrolled in the academy a week ago..

"Don't know really. I just knew how to do it and Shadow Replication took only one seal and I already knew that seal." Naruto answered.

'Amazing, looks like Naruto's getting some help from Kyuubi without Naruto actually knowing.' Shinta thought with amazement.

Naruto looked like he was going to say something else but fell on the ground due to chakra exhaustion.

"You should be careful for now. You've expended most of your chakra already." Shinta warned.

Shinta picked up Naruto, much to Naruto's protests, and placed him in the bed that Naruto was using earlier.

"Naruto, I'm going to cast a technique on you so that you'll go to sleep. When you sleep, I'll be entering your mind so that I can speak to you about why everybody hates you."

Naruto nodded his head and saw that Shinta started to use the seals to make him fall asleep. A couple seconds later, Naruto was instantly asleep and Shinta collapsed on the floor in front of the bed.

* * *

Inside Naruto's mind, Naruto was wondering where he was at.

"Where the heck am I?" Naruto spoke out loud.

"Your inside your own mind, and from what we can see, it's a complete mess. That means that your thoughts are disorganized and several of them are quite messy." Shinta answered from behind Naruto.

"Hey!" Naruto complained a few seconds later after realizing what Shinta said.

"Follow me and I'll show you why most people in Konoha hates you." Shinta ordered.

Naruto followed Shinta and soon entered a room with a cage inside it. Naruto went up to the cage and saw that a claw came from inside it. Naruto didn't flinch for some reason and looked at what caused the claw to come out.

"Boy, what are you doing in here?" a giant fox asked in a deep voice.

"Um, Shinta, who's this?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, this is Kyuubi the nine tailed demon fox." Shinta answered.

"KYUUBI!" Naruto said quite loudly. "Wasn't he destroyed seven years ago by the fourth Hokage?" Naruto asked.

"First off, the fourth didn't have the power to defeat Kyuubi so he opted for the next best thing and sealed the Kyuubi inside his own son." Shinta replied after making sure his hearing wasn't affect by Naruto's loud voice.

"I see, because of that, I'm a carrier of the demon fox." Naruto said to himself. He then remembered what Shinta said in the last portion of his sentence.

"You mean to tell me that the fourth Hokage was my father?" Naruto asked.

"You got that right brat." Kyuubi replied from behind the cage.

"Also Naruto, there was also one other thing that you were off on." Shinta said.

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

"The Kyuubi isn't a _he_, it's a _she_." Shinta answered. "Kyuubi, reveal yourself." Shinta ordered.

Kyuubi started to transform into her human form and when she finished transforming, Naruto laid eyes on the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on.

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**NEXT CHAPTER: NARUTO'S TRAINING FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS**

**Please Review**


	2. Chapter 2

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: Updated like the last one with the changes. Edited 07/18/2005

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**_Rising Phoenix_**

Kyuubi was a woman that appeared to be in her mid twenties. She had fiery red hair with fox ears on the sides of her head. She had a body which most women would kill to have and was wearing a simple red kimono that had the kanji of Kyuubi etched on the back of it.

"Well, if it isn't Shinta of the Phoenix clan." Kyuubi said amused.

"Kyuubi, I'm here to make a deal with you." Shinta replied, ignoring Kyuubi's remark.

"Hey, what does she mean when she said that you were of the Phoenix clan?" Naruto asked with curiosity.

"I'm the last member of the clan called Phoenix and they had a special bloodline. They were also experts with physical techniques." Shinta replied.

"Bloodline?" Naruto asked.

"Abilities that can only be passed on through family members." Shinta answered.

"I see." Naruto said nodding his head.

"What type of deal is it that you want to make?" Kyuubi asked, getting a little impatient.

"I want you to train the boy." Shinta answered.

"You want me to train with her?" Naruto asked pointing to Kyuubi.

"Think of it this way, you'll be a lot stronger if you train under the two of us. When your training is complete, you'll have the power to protect the ones who are most precious to you."

"I'll do it under one condition." Kyuubi said.

"And that would be?" Shinta asked.

"I want Naruto to create a modified Shadow Replication so that I can transfer my consciousness into it. It would be easier for me to train Naruto in that body then inside this stuffy cage." Kyuubi stated.

"I don't think so, what if you try to escape?" Naruto replied almost instantly.

"I can't. I've tried all the methods I could think of to escape and all of them didn't even dent the cage in the slightest. If you create a modified Shadow Replication, it would give me just a little bit of freedom." Kyuubi replied.

"Deal." Shinta said quickly.

"WHAT?" Naruto yelled.

"Don't worry about the modified Shadow Replication. I can teach you how to set it up so that only her consciousness would be transferred." Shinta stated.

"Alright, if you say so." Naruto said.

"I'll start teaching Naruto how to do the modified version immediately. Until then, I'll see you later." Shinta said to Kyuubi.

* * *

A few seconds later, Naruto and Shinta found themselves back into the real world. Naruto looked outside and he saw that the sun had just risen. 

"Looks like its morning now." Naruto replied.

"Yeah, your chakra reserves should be back to normal now." Shinta said back to Naruto. "I'll make us some breakfast and then we can start working on that modified replication."

"Ramen, Ramen, Ramen, Ramen, Ramen." Naruto said in his usual loud voice.

"Naruto, there are a few rules that you have to learn. Rule number one, No Ramen." Shinta said.

"No ramen." Naruto said slowly in a sad tone.

"I hate the stuff and I refuse to buy it." Shinta said outright.

"NOOOOOOO!" Naruto yelled out.

After breakfast, which consisted of food other than ramen, Shinta took Naruto outside to get working on the modified replication.

"Hey sensei, where are we at?" Naruto asked after the two just left the cabin they were staying in.

"I guess I forgot to tell you. The cabin that we are staying in is a few kilometers away from Konoha. It's concealed under powerful Genjutsu so I don't receive many trespassers. Only those who wield the highest level of the Sharingan can penetrate the barrier and there hasn't been a wielder of that level in a long time." Shinta answered.

"Sharingan?" Naruto asked.

"Don't worry about it for now. You'll learn more when I set up your rigorous training schedule." Shinta said in a creepy voice.

Naruto gulped and continued walking.

A few minutes later, Shinta and Naruto were in a peaceful clearing.

"Okay Naruto, in order to create a modified Shadow Replication, all you have to do is add more chakra to your regular Shadow Replication. If you did it correctly, the Shadow Replications that are modified should receive approximately five hits before they vanish. Modified replications should also have the ability to use one technique depending on the level of the technique. There are other circumstances to the modified replication, but you'll find out more later on." Shinta instructed.

Naruto started creating a single Shadow Replication and placed more chakra inside that single replication. The replication soon appeared and Shinta winced at the condition of the replication.

The replication looked sickly looking and it was lying down on the ground twitching.

"Looks like you need to work on your chakra control before we can start doing anything else." Shinta voiced out.

"What's wrong with my control?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Shinta pointed down to the modified replication.

"Oh." Naruto said.

"Follow me." Shinta replied, heading towards the forest.

"So, how are we going to improve my chakra control? Naruto asked with curiosity when he and Shinta entered the forest.

"Simple, we climb trees." Shinta replied.

"Um, how is that supposed to help?" Naruto questioned. "I mean, I already know how to climb a tree."

"Watch how I do it." Shinta said.

"What are you talking ab…" Naruto stopped talking when he saw that Shinta was walking up the tree without the use of hands.

Shinta went to the nearest branch and hung upside down and started talking to Naruto.

"What this exercise, you accumulate chakra and maintain a certain amount in a needed area. For this exercise, the area where the chakra will be accumulated at is the feet because it is said that the bottom of the foot is the most difficult area to gather chakra. Also, what this exercise also does is it helps develop the stamina needed to properly control chakra." Shinta explained. "I should stop ranting right now because you standing around will accomplish nothing."

Shinta tossed a kunai towards Naruto and it landed in front of Naruto.

"What's this for?" Naruto asked.

"This is so that you can mark how high you can go. It's best if you get a running start first to get some momentum." Shinta suggested jumping off the branch and landing perfectly on the ground.

Naruto started to gather up some chakra and started to run up the tree. Naruto took a couple steps before landing flat on his back.

"Try to see how far you get until later in the evening. I'll bring you your lunch later." Shinta instructed.

Shinta started to leave the training area and started talking as he moved away.

"Don't forget to take a break once in a while so that you don't suffer from chakra exhaustion."

* * *

The skies were now dark and the moon was full. Naruto was lying down on his back exhausted from trying to climb the tree. Shinta appeared from the path leading towards the cabin and he was carrying a little bit of food. 

"Here, eat. You need food in order to have your body function." Shinta said after hearing Naruto's stomach growl.

Naruto grabbed the food that Shinta held in his hand and started digging in.

"Not bad, you managed to get close to a quarter up the tree already. You're already showing results compared to what happened this morning." Shinta said, watching Naruto eat.

Naruto was about to retort when a figure came forth from the bushes nearby. A man came forth and he looked like he was running for his life.

"My clan, they've just been all killed. All but one are all dead." The man replied.

"Calm down." Shinta replied.

The man calmed down a little, but he still looked like he was deathly afraid something. Shinta went to the man and pressed a few pressure points to help the man relax.

"You should be feeling a little bit better. Why don't you tell me what happened?" Shinta replied soothingly.

"Thanks. My name is Uchiha Itachi. Just a short while ago, a man that is known as Orochimaru came disguise as me and massacred my entire family. Let me start from the beginning.

"I was coming home from an ANBU meeting that I attended when I felt that something was out of place. I ran as quickly as I could to the Uchiha sector of Konoha. When I arrived, I saw that my family members were dead on the ground, blood being spilt on the ground everywhere. When I entered my house, I saw that my mother and father were still alive and were telling me to get away. I was being stubborn and decided to stay because I thought that I this would be a good way to test out my potential. Orochimaru soon came and I saw that my best friend Uchiha Shisui, also known as Shisui of the Mirage, was with him.

"It turns out that Shisui faked his own suicide by leaving an advance version of the Shadow Replication Technique and by writing a note that stated he was tired of life. It was the perfect set up because it left him the freedom to do whatever he wants. I fought the two of them and I managed to kill Shisui. Because I thought of him as an older brother and my best friend, I gained the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan. I started to fight with Orochimaru after that and I lost to him because the fight with Shisui took a lot of my chakra.

"Orochimaru used the transformation technique not long after to change himself into me and used Genjutsu to hide my presence for when Sasuke shows up. Sasuke showed up not long after and he saw Orochimaru kill his parents. Sasuke was traumatized and because he was blinded by rage, he attacked Orochimaru. Orochimaru knocked him into the wall and left the household. I went outside to pursue, but Sasuke arrived and Orochimaru used that opportunity to escape. I used the Mangekyo on Sasuke in order to turn him into an avenger so that he would be strong enough to fight Orochimaru in the future.

"After I used the Mangekyo, I was almost out of chakra when from out of nowhere, a killing intent was felt, the source of it unknown. I fled because it was the only thing I could have done at the time. I fled from whatever casted the killing intent and I saw this red dome in this part of the forest that wasn't there before. I entered the dome and I found myself here." Itachi explained.

Everyone kept quiet for a little while before Shinta decided to speak.

"Since your life is pretty much over, you'll stay here with us and help me train Naruto." Shinta said, pointing towards Naruto.

"I don't know," Itachi replied skeptically "I could join up with some evil organization to get closer to Orochimaru." Itachi ended in his normal tone of voice.

"Why not join up with us? With you, Shinta, and Kyuubi helping me, I can help your younger brother out with dealing with Orochimaru." Naruto asked.

"Why not. This might be amusing." Itachi replied.

After that, the three figures headed back for the cabin and rested for the night. The next morning, Naruto was told of the routine that he would be face with for the next few years after he's mastered the tree walking, water walking, and the leaf concentration skill.

For the first couple years, Naruto will be learning things like survival training, learning different types of physical techniques, anatomy, and history. The three teachers would split the jobs up evenly and teach Naruto to the best of their abilities. The next three years after that, they would start teaching Naruto ninja techniques, improving on the physical fighting styles that he was taught earlier, and current situations happening around the entire shinobi world.

After spending a couple months with Naruto, the three teachers became quite fond of him. Itachi would treat him like a brother, Shinta was more like the father figure, and Kyuubi acted as a very close friend once she came to terms with Naruto.

* * *

On Naruto's tenth birthday, Naruto's life was about to change. It started out as a normal day. Naruto would wake up at four in the morning, cutesy of Kyuubi, and start practicing on physical skills. Later on, Naruto would be tutored in current situations from Shinta. After that, he would be with Itachi learning on a new technique or master a technique to its fullest potential. 

"Hey Itachi-aniki, what are we going to learn today?" Naruto asked happily.

"I won't be teaching you anything today. Shinta-sensei has requested your presence at the cabin. He said that he wanted to teach you a technique that your father wielded." Itachi replied.

"See you later aniki." Naruto replied as he started to head towards the cabin.

Itachi watched as Naruto left and went back to practicing the Amaterasu.

At the cabin, Shinta was waiting for Naruto to arrive. He was sure that Naruto received the message from Itachi to come over here and was waiting patiently. A few seconds later, he saw that Naruto was near the door about to open it. After Naruto entered the room, Shinta began to speak.

"Naruto, today's your tenth birthday and because of that, I want to teach you a special technique that only two other people had learned. The technique is known as the Rasengan. The first time I met your father, he had just mastered this technique and he was on his way to that perverted teacher of his to show him the results. The fourth instantly knew who I was and he decided to teach me the technique just incase something would happen to him in the future. Up until now, nobody except for the people living here knows that I have learned the Rasengan."

"Sweet." Naruto replied excitedly.

Shinta started to explain about the three stages and when Shinta finished explaining the three stages, Naruto made sure that he ingrained the three steps inside his memory so that he would master this new technique.

After Naruto made sure that he remembered everything, he saw that Shinta was looking quite pale.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked Shinta.

Shinta clenched his heart with his right hand.

"It's nothing." Shinta replied

"You look real pale. You're also clenching at your heart and you're sweating a lot." Naruto stated.

"Don't you dare tell me that it's nothing." Naruto said, raising his voice.

"What's going on?" Kyuubi asked, having just entered the room.

"Something's wrong. He's really pale and he's clenching to his heart." Naruto said in a worried voice.

"Let me see him." Kyuubi ordered.

Kyuubi took a look at Shinta and didn't like what she saw.

"This is not good. He's contracted a powerful virus that consumes the chakra at the source of the chakra circulatory system. It looks like it showed up a few weeks ago, but signs of the virus itself just showed up recently. I'd say that he will be killed within a few minutes, there's nothing that I can do against it. If Tsunade the medical expert was here, she might be able to make some type of vaccination, but she's at the far side of Wind Country at the moment." Kyuubi analyzed.

Naruto looked at Kyuubi and turned to Shinta when Shinta screamed out real loud. Shinta clenched his heart tightly and collapsed onto the ground.

Kyuubi checked Shinta's body and confirmed that he was now dead.

"What technique was it that he showed you before he died?" Kyuubi asked.

"Died?" Naruto asked back, shocked at seeing Shinta on the floor lifeless.

"He'd dead now. We'll have to give him a proper burial later on." Kyuubi said sadly.

"He was teaching me a technique known as he Rasengan." Naruto answered to Kyuubi's question.

"The Rasengan? Isn't that a technique that belonged to the fourth?" Itachi asked enter the room.

Naruto and Kyuubi looked at Itachi.

"Yeah, that's what he told me. He managed to tell me the three steps in order to complete the technique before he died." Naruto said sadly.

"So that would explain the loss of chakra I felt." Itachi said.

Naruto looked down on the ground and started to have tears in his eyes. Naruto tried to hide them from Itachi and Kyuubi, but it didn't fool them in the slightest. Kyuubi walked up to Naruto and placed him in a gentle embrace.

"Naruto, I honestly don't know the feeling of loss since I never had anyone that I was close with, but I think that in this situation, it's alright to cry. Once you finish, you'll be a lot stronger and we can help accomplish your dreams of the future." Kyuubi said in a soothing tone.

Naruto wept and Itachi took it as a sign that the two should be left alone. He headed out of the room and in the room, the only ones left were Kyuubi and Naruto.

A few minutes later, Naruto stopped crying and looked at Kyuubi.

"I'm sorry that I got you kimono wet." Naruto said.

"That's alright. Why don't we head for the nearest town and get some ramen. That should cheer you up." Kyuubi replied, trying to cheer Naruto up.

"That'd be nice." Naruto said.

"Why don't we find Itachi and tell him what happened?" Kyuubi asked.

"Sure." Naruto said quietly.

The two of them found Itachi back at the training grounds. He was still working on the God of the Sun technique when he noticed that he gained a small audience.

"Did something happen?" Itachi asked.

"We just discovered that Shinta died of a virus." Kyuubi replied.

"That it? I've known that for a while now. I guess that he wanted to live to this day and teach Naruto one last technique before he died." Itachi said impassively.

"You knew?" Naruto replied.

"He told me to keep it a secret. He told me that the virus was called the chakra draining virus and it consumes chakra for itself from the heart of the chakra circulatory system." Itachi explained.

"So what are we going to do now?" Naruto asked.

"Shinta left a series of journals that had the training regimen for the time we train Naruto. It should be in one of the bedrooms." Kyuubi answered.

The three started looking for the journals that Kyuubi said that Shinta had left behind. Naruto searched in one room while Kyuubi and Itachi looked in another. A few hours later, the three of them had only one room left in which they hadn't looked. They searched the last remaining room and Itachi made a discovery and announced it to Kyuubi.

"Hey Kyuubi, do you know of the Paradise series in the form of books?" Itachi asked.

"I know of them, I've heard that they're the second most popular series right being the books that pervert Jiraiya writes." Kyuubi answered.

"It turns out that Shinta here was the one who made the series and he was close to finishing up the final volume of the entire series." Itachi said, reading a couple pages of Awesome Paradise Volume 1.

"I see. I never would have figured that Shinta was an author." Kyuubi said.

"What type of book was it that Shinta wrote?" Naruto asked.

"You'll find out when you're older." Kyuubi replied quickly. "ITACHI!" Kyuubi yelled at Itachi, who was still reading the Awesome Paradise Volume 1, "Stop reading that book and find Shinta's journals."

"Yeah, yeah, you ugly fox." Itachi muttered.

"What was that?" Kyuubi asked, hearing what Itachi said.

"I said that I found the journals that I mentioned earlier." Itachi replied.

Kyuubi read the journals and discussed its contents with Itachi. Naruto decided to start digging up a grave outside to bury Shinta in later and left the room.

The next two years progressed smoothly. Naruto became more determined to learn as much as he can. It shocked both Kyuubi and Itachi how much Naruto had learned and it was a bigger shock to see that Naruto had mastered the Rasengan in under a month, although he had to use a Shadow Replication to sustain the shape at first. It took Naruto two months after that for him to do it one handed.

According to the information that Itachi had gathered, the Genin exams would be held in a couple days and that this would be the perfect opportunity for Naruto to begin his dreams. The three packed up everything of essential value and started heading off for Hidden Leaf.

* * *

**NEXT CHAPTER: NARUTO'S RETURN TO THE LEAF AND THE GENIN EXAMS**

**Please Review**

NARUTO'S TRAINING SCHELDULE DURING THE 5 YEARS

AGE 7: Physical techniques, chakra control, history, and anatomy.

AGE 8: Physical techniques, history, and anatomy.

AGE 9: Physical techniques, ninja techniques, survival training.

AGE 10: Rasengan, Ninja techniques, physical techniques, survival training

AGE 11: Situations happening in the world, and everything above

AGE 12: Same as above.


	3. Chapter 3

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: Updated 7/18/05

* * *

**

_**Rising Phoenix**_

A couple days later, Naruto and Itachi made it back to Konoha. Naruto was wearing an orange jacket with black running on the shoulders running down to the bottom of the sleeves. Naruto was also wearing orange pants with some bandage wrapping around his right thigh. (What Naruto wore in the beginning of the second arc) Itachi was currently using the most advanced version of the transformation technique in order to conceal his identity. Itachi's form during the transformation was a man with short brown hair, red eyes, and a cloak that's similar in design with that of the Akatsuki, just without the clouds. Kyuubi on the other hand was currently inside the seal since the body she was using ran out of chakra.

* * *

At the gates leading into Konoha, the guards on patrol looked at Naruto and Itachi.

"Here are our passports for entry into the village." Itachi said, handing the passports to the guards.

"Hmm, Phoenix and Weasel." The guard mumbled to himself. "Everything looks alright, we grant you entrance into our village. Welcome to Konoha Village." The guard replied, motioning the others to open the gates.

Naruto and Itachi entered the village and were wondering on what they should do.

"Why don't we see the Hokage and get you registered for the Genin Exams?" Itachi asked.

"Not right now. There's something that I want to do before I see the Hokage." Naruto replied.

"Oh, and what's that." Itachi asked with curiosity.

"I'm going to paint the Hokage Monument and announce my return here in Hidden Leaf." Naruto said with a smile.

Before Itachi could reply, Naruto summoned several Shadow Replications and ordered them to start painting the Hokage Monument.

"While they do the painting, why don't we head over to the Hokage's office?" Naruto suggested.

Itachi didn't reply and started heading off for the direction of the Hokage's office.

"Hokage-sama!" A Chuunin yelled, bursting into the Hokage's office.

"What is it?" the Hokage asked.

"Some vandals are desecrating the Hokage Monument with paint." The Chuunin replied.

'How troublesome' the Hokage thought in a Shikamaru type manner.

"Let me see what's going on then." The Hokage replied.

The third got up from his desk and was grateful for the disturbance because that meant that he could put his paperwork on hold, even if it's just for a little while.

The third left the room and entered the balcony that was located at the top of the tower. He was shocked at what he saw next. The Hokage monument had a bunch of pictures and drawings on it. This was mostly done on the first and second Hokages. On the third, he was wearing red on the lips and the entire sculpture of the third looked a lot more feminine. The forth seems like it received the least amount of damage because all that was drawn on it were three lines that were marked on each side of its face.

'I can't believe that I got the worst treatment out of the four sculptures.' The third complained.

The third returned to his office and saw that the Chuunin was still in there.

"Did you catch the culprit responsible?" the third asked.

"Uh, no sir." The Chuunin said reluctantly.

"Send a Genin team or two to clean it up as a D class mission. That is all." The third ordered.

"Yes sir." The Chuunin replied and left the room.

"Lord Hokage." The thirds secretary replied oven an intercom system.

"What is it now?" the third asked.

"There are two people wanting to see you sir. One of them said that he was Naruto." The secretary replied.

"Naruto?" the third asked.

"Yes sir." The secretary said.

"Bring him and the other person in then." The third ordered.

"Right away sir." The secretary then cut off her side of the intercom system.

'Uzumaki Naruto. It's been five years now since you've left. I wonder how much you changed.' The third thought.

"Hey old man, you in here." A familiar voice said out loud.

The third looked at the source of the voice and saw that it was definitely Naruto. He could easily tell because of Naruto's ocean blue eyes and the three whisker marks that were on his face.

"Naruto." The third said in a warm voice. "How have you been?"

"It's been great. I had a lot of fun while I was away." Naruto said happily.

"That's good to hear. Who this?" the third asked, pointing to Itachi.

"Do you think you can stay still until after he has a chance to explain himself?" Naruto asked.

'This seems quite serious' the third thought.

"I promise." He said out loud.

"Okay, you can reveal yourself then." Naruto said to Itachi.

Itachi released the transformation technique and the third was shocked at what he saw.

"Uchiha Itachi." The third said in a quiet, serious voice.

"Don't forget, you promised to stay still until you hear what he has to say." Naruto replied.

The third was still shocked at seeing Itachi inside the room with him and Naruto. Five years ago, he was classified as an S class missing-nin after the Uchiha Massacre. Itachi wasn't heard from after that incident and it was even rumored that he committed suicide because of the guilt he had for killing his entire family but his little brother.

"I know," the third said as he looked at Naruto. "Now Itachi, let me hear what you have to say." The third said, now looking at Itachi.

Itachi told the third Hokage the same story that he told Naruto and Shinta five years ago. When Itachi finished with his story, the third had some serious concerns about how Itachi dealt with the situations but decided to keep them to himself for now.

"Do you think that there's any way for Itachi-aniki to be taken off of the Bingo book and be restored as a member of Konoha?" Naruto asked.

"I know of a couple ways, but it's going to be tricky. A lot of people dislike Itachi for what he did and a lot of the shinobi here in the village already thinks he's dead." The third answered.

"Thanks. That would mean a lot if he's restored as a member of Konoha." Naruto replied gratefully.

"Enough about that for now, what about you? What have you been up to during the five years you were with the Rising Phoenix?" The third asked Naruto, brimming with curiosity.

Naruto then told the third about what happened during the five years.

"Not much has happened. I learned a lot of techniques while I was away. For a weird reason, my body seems incapable of doing simple techniques like the regular replication technique. I mastered the Shadow Replication, the Water Clone technique, and the Mud Replication, (the one that Orochimaru used in the anime series) easily enough.

"During my first year of training, we worked mostly on chakra control because to say it frankly, it sucked. Also, on the first day of my training, Phoenix and I," Naruto said, remembering that there weren't a lot of people who knew about the Rising Phoenix's true name, "met up with Itachi and after that, Itachi help Phoenix with my training. Also, earlier that day, Phoenix used a technique in which we could travel into my mind and speak with Kyuubi. After we spoke with Kyuubi, she decided to help train me to become the best ninja in the world and help me complete my dream of becoming Hokage."

The third was a little startled when Naruto said that he met the Kyuubi, but smiled immediately when Naruto mentioned his dream of becoming Hokage.

"After we met up with Itachi-aniki, I started to learn more on chakra control, taijutsu, history, and anatomy. After I mastered the chakra control exercises, I created a modified version of the Shadow Replication technique so that Kyuubi could have a physical body to teach me in." Naruto continued.

Naruto noticed the look on the third's face when Naruto mentioned that Kyuubi was going to have a physical body.

"If you're worried about the seal breaking, that is virtually impossible." Naruto said, trying to calm the third a little.

The third relaxed and waited for Naruto to continue.

"Anyways, the body that the Kyuubi uses can use up to 5 mid level techniques, which consists of C rank and lower, or 2 high level ones, which are A or B ranked techniques. The body then disappears when it runs out of chakra. The body also has a time limit of one day if no techniques were used.

"During the second year, I continued working on my chakra control, anatomy, and a little more history, specifically, the history of the Jinchuuriki." Naruto said.

"The Jinchuuriki?" the third asked, interrupting Naruto's story.

"That is what a demon carrier is called." Naruto replied.

The third nodded his head and motioned Naruto to proceed with his story.

Naruto continued with the story saying how Shinta, who was known as Phoenix to the third, Itachi, and Kyuubi were helping him with all sorts of things. Naruto also kept the part where he learned the Rasengan secret just so that he would have a trump card later on that only two people know about. At the end, the third had a few questions to ask.

"So Naruto, what type of techniques do you know?" the third asked.

"I know 2 B ranked fire techniques, the Fire Dragon Flame and the Dragon Fire techniques. I also know the Water Dragon Missile, Water Replication, and the Water Prison techniques. I also have one earth type technique which is the Inner Decapitation Technique." Naruto answered. "What sucks about most of the Ninjutsu techniques that I know is that they take up too much chakra for me to use simultaneously at the moment. Because of that, I decided to become a Taijutsu specialist using my three different types of clones as part of my fighting style. I was also taught the Phoenix Style that the Rising Phoenix wielded."

The third was quite impressed with the part where Naruto mentioned that his taijutsu style consisted of the use of clones. He was also a little surprised that he learned the Phoenix Style of combat.

"You say that you have the Fire Dragon Flame technique, how far can you fire the flame for that technique?" the third asked.

"Even though I know the technique, it takes up a lot of my chakra to use at the moment but I can fire the flame for about five to ten feet, depending on how much chakra I use." Naruto replied.

'It surprises me that he can even use the technique. The Fire Dragon Flame Technique is the strongest of the fire elemental techniques.' The third thought.

"Alright then, you said that you had the Dragon Fire Technique, am I right?" the third questioned.

Naruto nodded his head.

"Isn't that technique supposed to be a technique solely for the Uchiha Clan?" the third asked, looking at Itachi.

"I felt that Naruto was worthy of using that technique, so I taught it to him." Itachi simply replied.

"That'll be all then. Tell me, do the two of you have any place to stay for awhile?" the third asked.

Both Naruto and Itachi shifted uncomfortably.

"I see, Naruto, why don't you take this key and head for the directions stated on this map." The third said, grabbing a key and a map out of a secret compartment in his desk.

"What's this for?" Naruto asked.

"I assume that you know about you're father?" the third asked Naruto.

"Yeah." Naruto replied.

"The map will lead to you father's house. The key is to open up the main gates to your new house. Once inside, there will be two more to your right when you enter. Those two keys are for whoever you choose to hold them."

"Thanks old man." Naruto said ecstatically.

"Hn." Itachi replied.

"We'll be heading off then." Naruto said out loud.

When Naruto and Itachi were at the doors leading out of the office, the third had something to say.

"Naruto, don't forget to head for the Ninja Academy tomorrow. I'll have you registered to take the exams tomorrow, so all you have to do is show up." The third said with a smile.

"Thanks old man." Naruto replied.

As soon as both Naruto and Itachi left the room, Naruto spoke from the other side of the doors.

"Hey old man, I hope you liked the way I designed you sculpture at the Hokage Monument."

Naruto left quickly after that with Itachi following shortly behind.

'NARUTO!' the third thought in his head.

Right after the two left the third's office, Itachi placed the transformation technique that he was using earlier.

* * *

Naruto and Itachi were now wondering around Konoha wondering what to do next.

"Naruto, give me the key to the house. I'm going to head there right now and check on the living conditions within it." Itachi ordered.

Naruto didn't see any harm in giving Itachi the key and map and decided to hand it over. Itachi left and headed towards the house following the instructions stated on the map.

'Ah man, now I'm alone.' Naruto thought.

'**Did you forget little ole me?' **Kyuubi replied through Naruto's head.

Right after Naruto and Kyuubi established contact, the two discovered that they could communicate with each other telepathically. This didn't work thought when Kyuubi transfers her consciousness over to one of Naruto's modified replications.

'I didn't forget. I'm just wondering what I should do next.' Naruto replied to Kyuubi.

'**Why don't you get something to eat'** Kyuubi suggested.

'That sounds good.' Naruto thought.

'**I'm going to get some rest soon. Talk to you later.'** Kyuubi said, cutting of the mental link between the two.

'Might as well get some ramen then. I remember that Ichiraku's was just around this area.'

Naruto went over a couple blocks and found Ichiraku's ramen right were it used to be, although it looked a little run down since the last time Naruto ate there, which was before he left.

Naruto entered the Ramen stand and heard the owner mutter something after he sighed.

"I wish that brat was back. With him around, business was booming. Heck, I'd give him a free meal if he was here right now."

"Hey old man, give me some miso ramen." Naruto asked after he sat down on a stool.

Mr. Ichiraku looked at the customer and gasped. Ayame, Ichiraku's daughter, heard her father gasp and went to see what it was about. When she saw Naruto, she thought she was seeing a ghost.

"Hey old man, I thought I ordered miso ramen." Naruto said, starting to get annoyed.

"Naruto, is that you?" Mr. Ichiraku asked.

"Yeah it's me. Uzumaki Naruto is back for good." Naruto said loudly.

"Ayame, don't just stand there. You heard what he said, get him a miso ramen." Mr. Ichiraku said in a hurried voice.

Ayame grabbed left the counter and started making the ramen.

"So Naruto, where you've been, business has absolutely been dreadful after you left?" Mr. Ichiraku replied with curiosity.

"I've been training for the last few years." Naruto said, anxious to get some Ichiraku ramen.

"Was the training hard?" Mr. Ichiraku asked.

"The training itself was hard, but what was worse was that I couldn't eat any ramen for the last five years. I might've had a bowl or two at the most, but what I really want was some good Ichiraku ramen." Naruto replied.

"That's harsh. I hope everything was worth it." Mr. Ichiraku said, frowning at the part where Naruto said he had ramen only once or twice during the entire time he was gone.

"Finished." Ayame said from the back.

Mr. Ichiraku gave the bowl to Naruto.

"Eat up." Mr. Ichiraku said with a smile.

"Let's eat." Naruto said after breaking up a pair of chopsticks.

* * *

After eating at Ichiraku's Naruto wondered what he would do next. He decided to head over to a part of the forest nearby and be alone for a little bit. Naruto entered the forest and soon found a hill where a boy the same age as him was laying at. Naruto walked up to him and lay down beside him.

"Hi, my name's Naruto. What's yours?" Naruto asked.

"I'm Shikamaru." Shikamaru answered.

"I take it that you like to watch the clouds float by, don't you?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah," Shikamaru replied, "right now, I'm just waiting for a friend of mine to show up."

A minute later, another boy appeared and lied down beside Shikamaru.

"Hey Shikamaru, who's the new guy?" the boy asked.

"His name is Naruto." Shikamaru said to the boy.

"Hey Naruto, I'm Chouji, nice to meet you." Chouji said to Naruto.

"Hey." Naruto said to Chouji.

The three of them sat down in silence and a couple hours flew by without the three realizing it.

"Hey Naruto, are you ready to head home?" Itachi asked after locating Naruto.

Naruto got up and looked at Shikamaru and Chouji.

"I'll see you guys later then." Naruto said to the two of them.

"Later." Chouji said, while Shikamaru nodded his head.

After following Itachi for what seems to be hours, Naruto finally made it to the house that used to be his fathers. The house itself wasn't very special; it looked like a normal two story house with a dojo connected right beside it.

Naruto entered the house and saw the two keys that the third mentioned and placed them inside his pocket. Naruto saw that Itachi was heading over to the dojo and Naruto decided to follow.

Inside the dojo, Itachi pointed to a chest and Naruto saw that there was a note written on the chest.

"I didn't read it yet. I figured that you should be the one who reads it first." Itachi replied.

Naruto went up to the chest and grabbed the note that was above it. Naruto read the contents of the note and Naruto was in tears after reading the contents of it. The note states that the Kyuubi was nearing this house when he was writing this note. He wished that Naruto would be treated as a hero but the fourth knew how the village would react and apologized in advance. Later in the note, the fourth started that the chest that the note was above, contained the entire fighting style of the fourth and that he wished for Naruto to learn them.

Itachi saw that Naruto was crying and moved to where Naruto was at. Naruto gave the note to Itachi and he started reading it.

"Do you want me to help you learn the techniques that are in the chest?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah, I want to learn these skills and with the new skills that I learn, I'll protect those who are my precious people." Naruto vowed.

"Don't forget about your nindo now." Itachi replied.

"I know, I don't go back on my words." Naruto said with enthusiasm.

"Why don't I show you around the house?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah sure." Naruto replied.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto woke up bright and early. Naruto looked around his surroundings, forgetting that he was at his new house for a second. After realization kicked in, Naruto went to the nearest bathroom and got ready to head to the Ninja Academy.

An hour later, Naruto was in front of the Ninja Academy. He was feeling a little bit nervous because this was his first step towards become a Hokage. Naruto entered the building and soon found a man with a scar going across near the top of his nose.

"Um excuse me," Naruto said to the man, "can you tell me where the Genin Exams are going to be held at?"

"Yeah sure." The man replied. "I'm an examiner for the exams so all you have to do is follow me and I'll lead you there."

"Thanks, by the way, my name is Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto introduced.

'The Kyuubi?' the man thought. The man took a closer glance at Naruto. 'Nah, he looks too innocent to be the Kyuubi.'

"I'm Umino Iruka. You can just call me Iruka since all I am to you is your examiner and not your teacher." Iruka replied.

"Sure." Naruto said with a smile.

A few seconds later, Iruka entered the classroom followed shortly by Naruto.

"Settle down class, today we have a new student here to take the Genin Exams. Naruto, will you introduce yourself?" Iruka asked.

"Hello, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen and people who are precious to me." Naruto said.

"Why don't you get acquainted with a few of the students while I get the exams started." Iruka replied.

Naruto saw that Shikamaru and Chouji were nearby and decided to sit by them.

"Hey you two, nice to see you again." Naruto said to Chouji and Shikamaru with a smile.

"Hey." The two of them said.

"Do you play shogi?" Shikamaru asked.

"I play." Naruto answered.

"Want to play a game right now?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah sure." Naruto replied.

A minute later, the two started to play a nice game of shogi. Right after the game began, Chouji was called out to take the examination. Chouji returned 10 minutes later carrying a ninja forehead protector.

"Good job, looks like you passed." Naruto said while moving a knight.

"Thanks, it was a little rough, but I managed to pass." Chouji said with a smile.

Naruto and Shikamaru continued to play the game and when Shikamaru placed Naruto into a checkmate, Shikamaru was called up to take the exams.

"How troublesome." Shikamaru replied as he got up.

Shikamaru returned several minutes later carrying his forehead protector.

* * *

A couple hours later, it was Naruto's turn to take the exams. Naruto entered the room and saw that there were three instructors inside.

"Alright Naruto, first off, I want you to create a replication." Iruka instructed.

"Um Iruka, I can't make a basic replication. My body seems incapable of making them. If you want, I could show you a Shadow Replication or a Water Clone?" Naruto replied.

"You can do the Shadow Replication then." Iruka said in a shocked voice.

"Shadow Replication Technique." Naruto said out loud.

In almost an instant, five clones came into being. Iruka got up from the Instructor's table and examined the shadow replications.

"Alright Naruto, that's a pass. Now, aim some shuriken at the targets behind you." Iruka said after sitting back down.

Naruto threw the shuriken at the target and each of them was a perfect hit.

"Pass." Iruka said with more shock evident in his voice.

"And finally, use the transformation skill to transform into anything." Iruka said.

"Anything?" Naruto asked.

"Yes." Iruka said, wondering what Naruto was going to do next.

"Okay then, Sexy Technique: The Ninja Centerfold." Naruto said loudly.

Naruto transformed into a naked sexy blond and the three _male_ instructors that were at the table flew back with a nosebleed and were knocked unconscious. A minute later, Iruka was the first to recover.

"Naruto, that has got to be the most dangerous transformation technique in existence. However, since I did say that you could transform into anything, you pass. Congratulations, you are now a ninja of the Konoha Village." Iruka said with a warm smile, handing Naruto a forehead protector.

* * *

**NEXT CHAPTER: GENIN TEAMS AND BELL TESTS**

**Please Review**


	4. Chapter 4

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: Edited July 20, 2005.

* * *

**

_**Rising Phoenix**_

Naruto left the exam room and went back into the classroom. Naruto showed his forehead protector to Shikamaru and Choji. The two of them smiled at their new friend. Iruka entered the room a couple minutes later with some cotton stuck up his nose. Everyone in the class noticed it but didn't ask what the cause for the cotton was.

"Okay class; meet me here in one week to be assigned to your Genin teams, dismissed." Iruka instructed to the class.

Naruto left the class followed by Shikamaru and Choji. The two of them soon met up with their parents and Naruto decided to split up before he could possibly cause some trouble with their parents. Naruto went over to a set of swings in which he used to sit in when he was younger and sat alone. A minute later, Itachi, in his disguised form, showed up beside Naruto.

"Congratulations." Itachi said to Naruto.

"Thanks. Have you seen your brother yet?" Naruto asked.

"I've seen him. From the way he is right now, he is still too weak to take on Orochimaru. I just hope that he realizes that one gains true strength when one protects the people who are precious to him instead of gaining strength through solitude." Itachi replied in his calm voice.

"I must be rubbing off on you." Naruto said with his trademark grin.

Itachi grunted a reply and started to head away from the swings.

"I have to visit the Hokage now. I'm sure you can find something to do before dusk hits." Itachi said without looking back at Naruto. Naruto nodded his head and started to wonder around the village.

* * *

About ten minutes of wondering, Naruto found himself at a training area where a boy with a weird hairstyle and some thick eyebrows was kicking a log.

"Hey." Naruto said to the boy.

The boy looked at Naruto and replied.

"Hello." The boy replied.

"Are you practicing Taijutsu right now?" Naruto asked.

"Yes I am. With the flames of youth, those who are hard workers shall surpass those of geniuses."

'Okay, I remember Shinta-sensei telling me before that there was a Taijutsu master here in hidden leaf with a weird hairstyle and some thick eyebrows. That person also rambled on about the flames of youth or whatever. This kid must be a student of his. I wonder how I would fare against him.

"Do you wanna spar?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know." Lee said a little hesitantly.

"I want see how a hard working type person would fare against another hard working type." Naruto said to Lee.

Naruto could tell in an instant that Lee was the hard working type of person like he is.

"Alright then, a spar it is." Lee said with plenty of vigor.

Lee moved into an offensive stance while Naruto went into a defensive one.

"Tell me; are you a practitioner of the Lotus style?" Naruto asked.

"Why yes I am. The flames of youth is strong in you, um what's your name?" Lee asked.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto; I am the last known practitioner of the Phoenix style of fighting." Naruto announced.

"My name is Rock Lee. Shall we begin?" Lee asked.

The two started to spar and they were having a lot of fun doing so. Every time one person lands a blow on the other, the other would counter and give the other person a direct hit. According to Shinta, Shinta told Naruto that the only fighting styles that could defeat the Phoenix style of combat are the fourth Hokage's family fighting style and the Lotus style.

Thirty minutes later, the two were very exhausted. The two of them looked quite beat up and were panting heavily.

"That was a good match." Naruto said, panting as he spoke.

"That it was. I would like to go all out against you someday." Lee replied.

"Same here, the only reason why the two of us were at the level we fought at is because we both are carrying weights." Naruto said to the panting Lee.

Lee was surprised to hear that Naruto was wearing weights and that Naruto was also wearing weights.

"Hey Lee, are you able to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu?" Naruto asked when he checked to see how much chakra Lee had, he couldn't find any.

Lee shook his head.

"I can't use either Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. This is why I fight using Taijutsu. With Taijutsu, I can prove that I can still become an excellent ninja. That means everything to me." Lee replied sincerely.

Naruto smiled.

"That's a great goal. Tell you what, whenever I'm available to practice, I'll help you. It's a promise." Naruto said, using the nice guy pose and looking cool.

"That would be great." Lee said with a smile.

"I have to get going now. Talk to you later." Naruto said, waving his hand as he left the training field.

Right after Naruto left, Gai appeared behind Lee and was wondering what happened.

"Lee, who is that kid?" Gai asked from behind Lee.

"Oh Gai-sensei." Lee said turning around and looking at Gai. "That kid, he's Uzumaki Naruto, another practitioner of hard work." Lee replied.

'Uzumaki Naruto, so you're back in the village.' Gai thought.

"Gai," Lee said, interrupting Gai's thoughts, "he promised me that he would help me achieve my goal to become an excellent shinobi. He even used the nice guy pose." Lee said with a smile.

"The flames of youth run strongly in him." Gai replied to Lee.

'I wish to see how great a ninja both he and Lee will become' Gai thought.

"Alright Lee, tell me everything about the fight you had with him." Gai ordered.

"Yes sensei. Naruto came to me and asked if I wanted a spar. I accepted and he asked if I was a practitioner of the Lotus style." Lee started out.

Gai was shocked at what Lee had just said. The Lotus style was a very rare fighting style and if Naruto had heard of the Lotus style, Naruto must've trained under a powerful taijutsu master.

"After I acknowledged that I was a user of the Lotus style, he said that he was the last known user of the Phoenix style. Gai, what is the Phoenix style of combat?" Lee asked.

'The phoenix style, that style of combat was thought to be lost after the entire Phoenix clan was wiped out. That style of combat is the exact opposite of the Lotus style.' Gai thought.

Gai heard Lee repeat the question of what was the Phoenix style and answered.

"Lee, the Phoenix style is the style that is the opposite of the Lotus style. With the Lotus style, we rely heavily on speed and use the eight celestial gates if we're forced to. The Lotus style is an offensive style of combat. The Phoenix style also relies heavily on speed, but what's different about the Phoenix style is that the Phoenix style is a defensive style. A person who uses this style also has a high amount of chakra which makes the style hard to use unlike the Lotus style which uses pure stamina." Gai explained while Lee was writing down everything on a small notepad.

* * *

After Naruto's spar with Lee, Naruto ventured into the forest more and saw that one of the instructors from earlier, Mizuki was the name that one of the students said, was carrying a giant scroll and was heading away from the village.

"Where do you think you're going?" Naruto said to the Mizuki.

The instructor looked back and saw that it was only Naruto.

"Well if it isn't the demon. I better dispose of you quickly otherwise, the others will find me real soon." Mizuki said to Naruto.

Mizuki threw one of his larger shurikens at Naruto and smirked when the shuriken made contact on Naruto. The smirk disappeared almost instantly when Naruto's body turned into mud. Mizuki looked around to see where Naruto was and couldn't find him. When Mizuki couldn't find Naruto on the tree branch he was on, he went down to the ground to look. Right when Mizuki touched the ground, he was sucked under and at ground level, only his head was visible.

"And to think you were an instructor." Naruto said in a taunting voice.

Naruto grabbed the scroll that Mizuki was carrying and dropped when he went into the ground and check to see what type of scroll it was.

'I don't believe this. This is the Scroll of the Forbidden Seals. I wonder what kind of techniques are in it.' Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto checked out several of the techniques that were listed in there and saw a few interesting techniques that he would like to study. In the scroll, there was also a technique that was called the Demon Unsealer and Naruto thought that would be a good technique to start on. The Demon Unsealer bypasses the Dead Demon Seal which holds Kyuubi inside Naruto and gives her free reign over Naruto's body for a limited time. Also, Kyuubi's chakra would be much easier to access when Kyuubi is in control of Naruto's body. Only those filled with pure intentions have the ability to use the seal, but because the seal has the ability to bypass the Dead Demon Seal, it was classified forbidden.

Naruto noticed not soon after that Mizuki was still awake and hit him in the back of the head rendering him unconscious.

An hour later, Naruto learned the Demon Unsealer Technique and was at the point of chakra exhaustion. Naruto was about to learn a second technique when Iruka appeared from the bushes nearby.

"So this is where Mizuki went." Iruka said in an annoyed tone.

Iruka noticed that Naruto was there and that he was holding the Forbidden Scroll.

"Naruto, where did you get that scroll?" Iruka asked.

"I found him," Naruto then pointed to Mizuki, "trying to leave the village with it a few minutes ago. He seriously underestimated me and I used the Inner Decapitation Technique to send him as he is now." Naruto explained, purposely leaving out the fact that he was learning a technique from the scroll.

"Why don't we head back to the village and I'll treat you to some ramen." Iruka said in a warm voice.

"Oh yeah." Naruto said in a loud tone.

After Mizuki was taken care of, Naruto and Iruka sat down at Ichiraku's and ordered some ramen. After about twenty bowls of ramen from Naruto, Iruka looked at his empty wallet. Naruto used up all the money that he had.

"So Iruka, so you know what they're going to do to Mizuki?" Naruto asked.

"I think that Mizuki is going to be sent to Special Ninja Felony Prison." Iruka answered.

"I have to get going now. See you later Iruka." Naruto said in a cheery voice after looking at a clock nearby.

Iruka smiled warmly as he watches Naruto head off.

* * *

During the next four days, nothing special really happened. Naruto was true to his word and helped Lee out whenever the two of them had some free time. On the fifth day, Naruto had to have his picture taken for the Ninja registry. Naruto decided to change his hairstyle a little to stir up some trouble and when he had his picture taken, he was almost mistaken as the fourth Hokage.

After Naruto showed his info to the third, the third's grandson appeared and was challenging the third to another battle. Later during the day, the third's grandson, Konohamaru, asked Naruto to see if he could learn the Sexy Technique: The Ninja Centerfold. After a couple hours passed, Konohamaru's tutor, Ebisu arrived and fell victim to Naruto's Sexy Technique: Harem. After that incident, Naruto and Konohamaru became rivals for the title Hokage.

* * *

One week has now passed since Naruto passed the Genin Exams. During the last couple days, he looked at his father's scrolls that were previously inside the chest and Naruto started to learn the basics of the taijutsu style as well as the Yellow Flash technique, which was a technique where his body produces yellow flashes of light, and the Body Flicker Technique.

After Naruto was done eating breakfast, which was at Ichiraku's, Naruto started to head for the Academy. When he entered the Academy, he saw that there were two girls that were blocking the door into the classroom. A few seconds later, the two were in and were saying that they won the race.

'Girls are weird.' Naruto thought.

'**What are weird?' **Kyuubi asked in an icy tone from within Naruto.

'Nothing' Naruto thought back quickly.

When everyone was assembled, Iruka entered the classroom and started to make a speech about how they were only Genin and that they have to have a Jounin teacher. After Iruka finished with the speech, he started to announce the teams. After he said team 5, he skipped team six and went on to team seven.

"Alright, now for team 7; Haruno Sakura,"

Sakura's ears perked up at the mention of her name.

'Let me be with Sasuke-kun.' She thought continuously.

"Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, and finally Uchiha Sasuke."

"Yes!" Sakura said out loud.

Most of the girls in the class were shooting death glares to Sakura because of having Sasuke on her team. Sasuke was the most popular boy in the class and most of the girls in the class had a crush on him. Both Kiba and Akamaru groaned when they heard that they were going to be on the Uchiha's team and were about to protest but decided against it.

"Next, team 8. We have Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka continued.

After hearing his name, Naruto looked around the room to see who his teammates were and saw that Shino was the quiet, non-talkative type and Hinata was shy.

'This is going to be interesting.' Naruto thought loudly, filled with excitement.

'**Don't think so loudly'** Kyuubi complained.

'Sorry' Naruto thought a little quieter.

While Naruto was talking with Kyuubi, Iruka stated the names for team nine and is proceeding to team ten.

"And finally team ten. We have Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji."

After everyone got settled down from the team listings, Iruka made another announcement.

"Alright class you'll meet your Jounin teachers later this afternoon." Iruka finished.

* * *

Naruto decided to head out and see what was going on in the village. Naruto decided to see where Lee was and see if he's available to spar. When Naruto entered an area where there are several restaurants, Naruto saw that one of the buildings looked decimated. Naruto checked to see what the source of the destruction was and saw that Lee was being restrained by an older version of Lee and a person who he hadn't seen yet.

"Neji, make sure that you can hold him securely now." Gai ordered to Neji.

Neji was having some serious trouble holding Lee's legs while Gai was using a full nelson to retrain Lee's upper body.

"Excuse me." Naruto said to a girl that was nearby. The girl had two buns on her head and was wearing a pink Chinese outfit.

"What's going on with Lee?" Naruto asked.

"Instructor Gai took us out to celebrate the completion of Lee's new move when he mistaken Gai's sake with water." The girl replied.

"Oh great, a Drunken Fist fighter." Naruto muttered under his breath.

Naruto went up to lee while Gai and Neji were holding on to Lee and pressed a few pressure points that were on Lee's chest. Lee fell asleep a few seconds later and Neji released his hold on Lee while Gai placed him down gently to the ground.

"Thanks." Gai said, panting a little.

Gai looked at who the person was that sent Lee to sleep and saw that it was Naruto.

"What did you do to Lee?" Neji asked after he saw that Lee was quite asleep.

"I pressed a few pressure points on his chest in which drunken fighters are weak against. When those points are pressed, they instantly fall asleep." Naruto answered.

'Thank god that Shinta taught me those anatomy lessons.' Naruto thought gratefully.

"Seeing that Lee is unavailable for now, I'll take my leave." Naruto said aloud, looking at the sleeping Lee.

Naruto started to turn around and leave when Neji decided to speak again.

"What is your name?" Neji asked.

"Ask your sensei, he was there when I sparred with Lee a few days ago." Naruto answered, leaving the scene to head to the academy.

Gai looked at Naruto and was shocked that Naruto knew of his presence during the spar with Lee.

* * *

Naruto made it to the academy not long after and saw that he and his team were supposed to meet their instructors in about an hour. Naruto decided to enter the classroom where he was assigned to wait for his instructor and started reading one of the scrolls his father left him. In this scroll, it was the instructions on how to do the Yellow Flash attack. The attack states that while the body produces yellow flashes when the attack is used, this attack can also be used to temporally blind users of any Doujutsu, or eye techniques.

Naruto read the scroll and saw that there were a total of ten seals that need to be performed for the attack to work. The scroll also states that if a user practices this technique enough, it is possible to use the technique without any hand seals, but that was only in theory because no one in the clan was capable of doing so. Naruto speculated that the forth might be able to do so, considering that he was known as Hidden Leaf's Yellow Flash, but the forth died before the scroll was updated.

About forty-five minutes later, Shino appeared and Hinata followed not long after. After the two of them showed up, Naruto continued to read the scroll while practicing the hand seals. He figured that if he practiced the technique for most of the night tonight, he would be able to use it. Twenty minutes of pure silence later, team 8's instructor arrived.

"Hello, I'm Yuhi Kurenai and I'll be the instructor for team 8. Why don't we start things off with an introduction so that we can get to know each other first?" Kurenai suggested.

"Why don't you start things off then?" Naruto asked.

"My name is Yuhi Kurenai. I just recently was promoted to Jounin. I like dango and rice cakes. I dislike perverts and I wish to be the best Genjutsu master here in Konoha." Kurenai introduced. Kurenai then pointed to Naruto.

"Alright, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like learning new techniques and training. I also like to eat at Ichiraku's ramen and I dislike the three minute wait for the ramen to finish. I also dislike perverts and I plan on being the next Hokage here in this village." Naruto said loudly.

'Interesting' Kurenai thought.

"Why don't you go next?" Kurenai said looking at Shino.

"Name's Aburame Shino. I like bugs and I dislike people who don't like bugs." Shino said in an emotionless voice. "I also like to collect different species of bugs and hope to collect every type known."

'Weird' both Naruto and Kurenai thought.

Hinata then started to introduce herself.

"I'm H-Hyuuga Hinata. I l-like people who are precious to m-me." Hinata started with a quiet tone and stuttering. "I-I dislike people who a-are mean. I h-hope to take over the r-role of being t-the head of my family someday."

'This is just great. First, I have a loud boy who's basically an enigma, a boy who likes to collect bugs," Kurenai suppressed a shiver at the thought, 'and a girl who has a serious confidence problem.'

"Alright team, meet me at training ground 21 tomorrow and we'll start our duties." Kurenai replied to the Genins.

"What kind of duties?" Naruto asked.

"Survival training. Out of the twenty seven people who graduate, only nine of them will become Genin. That means that this test has a failure rate of 66.6 percent. The details can be read on these pamphlets." Kurenai said, handing out a pamphlet out to each of the Genin. "I also suggest that you don't eat tomorrow or you'll throw up." Kurenai then disappeared with a teleportation technique.

"Guess I'll see both of you tomorrow." Naruto said, looking at Shino and Hinata.

Naruto left the room before the others could respond.

'What do you think this exam will be about will be about?' Naruto thought telepathically to Kyuubi.

'**I don't know, probably something to do with teamwork.' **Kyuubi replied.

'Do you think you can help me out with this technique?' Naruto thought to Kyuubi.

'**Give me a body and I will'** Kyuubi answered.

Naruto created a modified Shadow Replication and transformed it into Kyuubi's form, just without the tail or ears, much to Kyuubi's disappointment.

"It's great to be finally out of that cage after being inside for a week." Kyuubi said happily.

"Why don't we head over to my house and start practicing the Yellow Flash Technique?" Naruto asked, walking towards the direction of his house.

At Naruto's house, Naruto practiced using the Yellow Flash technique. Naruto managed to get a weak version of the flash, but he wanted to try to at least get the full version once so that he could use it for whatever his instructor has planned the next day.

* * *

The next day, Naruto was tired from attempting to do a full version of the Yellow Flash Technique. He managed to make a complete version of the technique, but fell asleep almost immediately due to chakra exhaustion. Naruto woke up feeling alright because Kyuubi used some of her chakra to help heal Naruto.

Naruto decided to go against Kurenai's orders and decided to eat breakfast at his favorite place. After Naruto finished eating, he went over to the training ground as instructed.

At the training grounds, Naruto saw that Shino was already there and that he was looking at some bugs that were located inside a rotted log. Naruto decided to take the time to look around and see what the training area looks like. He saw that the training field has three logs sticking out at one part of the region and a lake that was beside the training field which would be perfect for his water techniques.

5 minutes had passed and Hinata showed up followed closely by Kurenai.

"Okay team, this is what you're going to try to do. I've hidden two items somewhere inside this training area. What you're going to do is find those two items before the timer here," she holds a small timer and places down on a nearby stump, "reaches noon. You have four hours to find those items. The person who doesn't have an item by noon fails and gets sent back into the academy. Also, I'll be your opponent during the four hours just so that it will be harder for the three of you to find the items. When I say start, you can begin." Kurenai instructed.

A few seconds later, "Start." Kurenai said out loud and vanished using the same teleporting technique as yesterday.

* * *

**NEXT CHAPTER: THE GENIN TEST AND A C CLASS MISSION**

**Please Review or send an email**


	5. Chapter 5

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: Yo, I was bored so I decided to write this next chapter out and have it released early. Also, a reviewer asked if this story should be a Naru/Hina/Kyuubi story and I would like to hear input on the idea. I won't turn the story into that pairing unless a majority of reviewers wish it so. I already have plans for Naruto and Kyuubi but they can easily be altered so that Hinata could be included. Again, I just ask for input for now.

* * *

**

_**Rising Phoenix**_

After Kurenai yelled start, everybody moved off into different directions. Shino hid in some bushes nearby, Hinata was hiding in some bushes in a different area, and Naruto was hiding on top of some trees.

'Hmm, interesting, from the way they act, it seems as though they want to take down the threat first instead of finding the items that I hidden.' Kurenai thought.

Kurenai decided to stay put near the stump where the timer was and grabbed an item that was located in an inside pocket within the clothing she was wearing. Naruto noticed the book and tried to suppress his laughter. The book that Kurenai was reading was Awesome Paradise Volume 5.

'I don't believe this.' Naruto thought.

"Hey Kyuubi, guess what? Our teacher is a pervert who hates perverts.' Naruto replied telepathically to Kyuubi.

Kyuubi was confused at what Naruto said because she couldn't see out to the outside world because of the seal.

'**What do you mean?'** Kyuubi asked.

'Our teacher right now is reading one of Shinta's Awesome Paradise stories.' Naruto replied.

'**While it's true that Awesome Paradise is an action type story, about half of the book is about sex.' **Kyuubi said to Naruto.

Naruto started to turn crimson red at the mention of sex. A month ago, Naruto accidentally mistaken one of the Awesome Paradise books for a book on human anatomy and he became captivated with the story. Kyuubi just happen to be out that day and saw that Naruto was reading the book showing no signs of stopping. After Naruto finished with the book, Kyuubi had the dreaded task of giving Naruto 'The Talk'. Naruto became red for quite some time after Kyuubi was done.

'I think that I should send a couple Shadow Replications to see how our teacher is overall.' Naruto thought.

'**That's a good plan for facing unknown opponents.'** Kyuubi replied.

Naruto formed three Shadow Replications and sent them off to face Kurenai. Naruto was sure that Kurenai didn't notice Naruto summon up a little bit of chakra because of the redness of Kurenai's face.

Over to where Shino was at, he was thinking of some type of plan to defeat Kurenai. He already realized the true purpose of the test which was teamwork, but being the quiet person that he is, decided to do nothing but think up of a plan to defeat his teacher. When he saw that Kurenai picked up a book from within his clothing, he saw that it would be a good chance to attack, but decided not to just in case it was a trap.

With Hinata, she stayed at the area where she was staying at and waited for something to happen. She wasn't feeling real confident as usual and was afraid of failing the test.

The three replications that Naruto summoned were hidden at three locations near Kurenai and decided to go for a pincer attack. The three jumped out and Kurenai placed her book away and moved into a defensive fighting position.

'So he decided to start things off with a regular replication then.' Kurenai thought. Kurenai then decided to ignore the shadow replications thinking that they were regular replications and waited for Naruto to attack. The thought didn't last for long when two of the three replications hit Kurenai hard on the face. Kurenai was shocked. She didn't expect a Genin to have a B ranked technique like the Shadow Replication. She then noticed that one of the three replications didn't attack while the other two were busy fighting with her. She thought that the third one must be the original. She disposed of the two shadow replications with a couple of kunais and started to cast a Genjutsu onto the third clone.

When Kurenai finished the hand seals, she was shocked that Naruto was still standing there like nothing has happened. The third shadow clone moved at a faster pace then what the other two were moving at and tried to punch Kurenai in the stomach. Kurenai barely dodged because she was a little shocked that a Genin saw through her Genjutsu and hit Naruto in the back of the head, hoping to knock him out. She then understood why the Genjutsu didn't work. She realized that the third shadow replication, the one where she thought it was the real one, was just another replication.

Over at the tree where Naruto was at, he analyzed the fight that Kurenai had with the three shadow replications.

'Not bad, looks like she has average taijutsu and I still haven't see what type of Ninjutsu she could use yet. I remember that she said that she was a Genjutsu specialist and that she wanted to be the best. She shouldn't have lowered her guard when a Genjutsu didn't work.' Naruto analyzed.

'I might as well send another shadow replication over to Hinata and Shino. From what I just witnessed, if the three of us can work together, we can easily beat her. She did mention that she just became a Jounin so we should have the advantage since I myself am around the same level. A lot of people may not think so, but look at people like Itachi and the Copy-nin Kakashi. Kakashi became a Jounin at the age of 13 and Itachi became the captain of the ANBU.'

Naruto headed off for the direction of Hinata while he created a Shadow Replication and sent it off to bring Shino over to where Naruto and Hinata were. When Naruto reached the area where Hinata was at; he saw that she was watching Kurenai.

"Hey Hinata." Naruto said quietly from behind Hinata.

Hinata nearly jumped up with fright but turned around and saw that it was Naruto.

"I have a plan in which we could defeat out teacher, but I'll need your help as well as Shino's." Naruto replied in the same quiet voice. A few seconds later, Naruto's shadow replication came along with Shino. Naruto dispelled the replication and started to tell Hinata and Shino his plan.

"Alright, we still have two and a half hours before this test is over. First off, we send Hinata out with a few of my shadow replications to help her out. Hinata, you'll lure her over to the lake. When she's near the lake, Shino will appear and send her off onto the water. Since she's a Jounin, it's safe to say that she knows the water walking technique."

"Water walking?" Hinata asked.

"It means that you walk on water using chakra." Shino answered to the surprise of the other two.

"Anyways, after we get her on the water, I'll use my water techniques to contain her until a few of my shadow replications find the two items." Naruto finished.

The plan sounded simple enough and Shino was impressed when Naruto said that he had a few water techniques at his disposal.

"Hinata, do you think you could do it?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"Y-y-yes." Hinata replied.

Naruto smiled and Hinata blushed a little when Naruto did so.

"Great. Then shall we begin?" Naruto replied.

Hinata jumped out of the bushes activating the Byakugan and saw that Kurenai was still reading the same book that she was reading earlier. Hinata started to run head on towards Kurenai and used her Gentle Fist style to attack.

Kurenai noticed that Hinata was rush towards her.

'This is very unlike her. Something must be going on.' Kurenai thought.

Hinata started to attack and Kurenai did her best to make sure that she wasn't hit. When Hinata was going for a shot at Kurenai's arm, Kurenai grabbed Hinata's arm and started to throw her. She was then attacked from where Hinata was by a shadow replication that Naruto created.

Kurenai was sent back and was soon assaulted by both Hinata and a few shadow clones that Naruto created. Kurenai then noticed that she was being sent towards the lake during the fight between her, Naruto, and Hinata. Kurenai then realized that the lake must have some vital role in the way that Naruto and Hinata were acting and tried to get away. When she jumped up to go over the two Genins, she was ambushed by a bunch of bugs and was forced to head over to the lake.

Kurenai managed to get rid of the shadow replications with a couple shots and moved on top of the water to get away from Hinata and recuperate a little. Kurenai's rest didn't last long when a couple of water clones appeared and grabbed each of Kurenai's arms. Kurenai managed to destroy the two water clones quickly thanks to the fact that water clones only have 1/10th of the users overall strength.

Right after Kurenai destroyed the two water clones, the water that was produced to create the clones started to swirl and a few seconds later, she was trapped within a water prison. Kurenai looked at the source of the water prison and was shocked at what she saw. Not only did Naruto cast the Water Prison Technique, he was also standing on water as if he did it for all his life.

"You underestimated us." Naruto said while maintaining the prison.

"I guess I did." Kurenai answered.

Naruto released the water prison and escorted Kurenai back over to dry land. When the two were on dry land, both Hinata and Shino were sitting down on a log that was near the stump.

"Good job you three, you pass." Kurenai said with a smile.

"This test was quite simple, first off, told us that we had to look for two items. After that, you said that if we don't find the items, we would be sent back to the academy. That was said to cause diversity between the three of us. The main point of this test was for the three of us to work together as a team because all Genin teams are done with 3 man cells and an instructor." Naruto analyzed to everybody.

Kurenai was shocked because she didn't think that anyone would find the true purpose of the test in the way that Naruto stated it.

"Oh and teacher," Naruto said, "here are the two items that you hid under your Genjutsu. You should try to use a higher level technique next time you try to hide an item." Naruto said, handing Kurenai the two items.

Again, Kurenai was shocked. She was certain that she had placed the highest level of Genjutsu to hide the two items and Naruto said that she should use a high level next time.

'I don't see why she's so shocked. I mean, ever since Itachi exposed me to the Mangekyo Sharingan numerous times during our training, I've become immune to most types of Genjutsu. The only types of Genjutsu that can affect me are those of the highest levels, kinjutsu, and bloodline limits like the Mangekyo. Wait, I guess I can see why she was shocked.' Naruto thought.

"Alright team 8 will begin its duties starting tomorrow." Kurenai said, deciding to drop the matter for now.

* * *

A week later, team 8 received 9 D class missions. 5 of the 9 missions that the team had to do involved catching a cat named Tora, which belonged to the Daimyo's wife.

"Why is it that every time that stupid cat escapes we are the ones who have to catch it?" Naruto complained after finishing up their 9th mission.

Shino remained silent as ever and Hinata was too shy to answer.

"If we have to do another mission where we have to catch that darn cat, I'm going to force the Hokage to give us a C class mission." Naruto replied more to himself than his other teammates.

Luckily, during the next week, the team received more D class missions which _didn't_ involve that cat. After completing a mission of potato digging, team 8 was in front of the Hokage in the mission selection office turning in the report for the next mission.

"Alright, Team 8, your next mission is to catch a runaway animal." The third replied after looking at a list of D class missions.

"This mission wouldn't involve a certain familiar cat with a ribbon on its left ear would it?" Naruto said dangerously.

"I'm sorry, I was looking at the wrong list." The third replied, seeing the look that Naruto was giving him. The way that Naruto was looking at the third; it was saying 'give me a C class mission now or you're going to regret it.'

The third looked at the C class missions and found a good one for team 8 to do.

"Alright then, I'm assigning you a C class mission. You are to do a protection mission for a man name Tazuna who is from Wave Country." The third ordered.

Tazuna entered the room and looked at Kurenai and her team.

"I am Tazuna the super expert bridge builder. I expect you to give me super protection until I get back to my super country and complete the bridge." Tazuna said to team 8.

'This guy likes to say super a lot.' Team 8 thought in unison.

Twenty minutes later, Naruto was about to leave his house to meet up with the rest of his team for the escort mission. When Naruto reached the door, Itachi decided to say something.

"Naruto, be careful on your way to wave. The 'Devil of the Mist' Momochi Zabuza was last sighted somewhere in Wave Country with a single accomplice. I'm currently using Shinta's information network that he had and gathered up a little bit of information. I've also heard that this information network is supposed to be better than that of the Akatsuki. Be careful and take care." Itachi warned.

"What will you be doing when I'm gone then?" Naruto asked.

"The third managed to get me back into the ANBU. All the members of the ANBU know of my innocence now and believed the story that the third gave, which was similar to what he told him, but altered a little. Also, the Jounins don't know that I'm here in Konoha so that'll still be kept a secret. I'll see if I can get an ANBU team ready just in case you run into trouble." Itachi replied.

Naruto left the house and arrived at the meeting place a couple minutes later. Shino and Tazuna were already there and were still waiting on Kurenai and Hinata. A couple minutes later, the two females arrived and the group of five headed out for Wave Country. Naruto took heed of Itachi's warning and kept on guard during the entire trip.

* * *

A few hours later, the group went across a couple puddles and went along as it were nothing out of the ordinary. Both Kurenai and Naruto noticed that there was a suspicious looking puddle but decided to ignore it for now. When the group was twenty feet from the puddle, two ninjas started to emerge from within the puddle of water.

The two ninjas rose up and one of the two ninjas threw the other and started to attack Kurenai with chained based weapons that had sharp points on the chains. The chains enveloped themselves around Kurenai, after the chains were around Kurenai, the two ninjas pulled the chains in their direction and Kurenai was ripped to shreds.

Hinata gasped in fear, her eyes wide with shock at seeing her teacher being ripped apart while Shino was calm. Shino moved over to Tazuna and moved into a defensive stance. Naruto wasn't surprised one bit and was wearing a smile on his face. This confused the two ninjas and they decided that Naruto would be the next target to kill. The two of them retracted their chains and started to launch an attack against Naruto. One of the ninjas moved forward and started to attack Naruto with the clawed gauntlet he was wearing while the other decided to go after Tazuna.

The ninja that was after Tazuna stopped briefly when he saw Shino and decided to attack Shino. The ninja then attacked using the same clawed gauntlet that his partner was using and tried to slash Shino's body. Shino countered by using a bug replication and because the bugs were now on the ninja, Shino ordered the bugs to start draining the chakra out of the ninja. The ninja went down to the ground unconscious not long after because of the lack of chakra. Shino made sure that he didn't kill the ninja.

At Naruto's battle, Naruto easily dodged the thrust attack that the enemy nin was using and created a couple of shadow replications. The replications surrounded the ninja and managed to restrain the ninja's arms. Naruto grabbed some wire that he was using earlier and used the wire to restrain the ninja to a nearby tree. Naruto then enforced the wire using his chakra so that the enemy ninja wouldn't escape.

"How was it that a brat like you defeat me, one of the two Demon Brothers of the Mist, while we easily taken out the woman earlier?" The enemy ninja asked.

"It's simple. You never really killed Kurenai. What you destroyed was merely an object used in the substitution technique. Our teacher is on the tree above us right now. As for the fact that I've defeated you, you need to learn how to hide better. You see, in this region, it hasn't rained for days and that means that all the puddles in the region should have long been evaporated. I've defeated you because I was of a high skill then you were, that's all." Naruto explained simply.

Kurenai went down on the tree that she was on and looked at Naruto.

"Good job Naruto. I'm impressed that you managed to figure it all out." Kurenai replied. She then looked at Tazuna.

"Tazuna, I need to talk to you." Kurenai said seriously. She then looked at the ninja that Naruto tied up to the tree. "The two ninjas that we faced were Mist Village's Chuunins. They are known to fight until the bitter end, no matter what. If I wanted to, I could've defeated these two instantly." Kurenai said, now looking at Tazuna.

"If you could've defeated these two ninjas immediately, why didn't you?" Tazuna asked.

"I wanted to find out something, like who there target was." Kurenai answered.

"What do you mean?" Tazuna asked, feeling a little bit nervous.

"We haven't received any information that there were shinobi that are after you. Our mission was to protect you from gangs and thieves. This mission just became a B class mission. This was supposed to be a simple protection mission until you finished the bridge." Kurenai said to Tazuna, answering his question.

Naruto decided that he had enough and started to head to the direction of Wave Country. Naruto walked by Hinata who was still a little scared at what just happened.

"Don't worry Hinata, as long as I'm around, you'll be fine." Naruto said with his trademark grin.

Hinata blushed and saw that Naruto was still walking towards the direction of Wave.

"Naruto, where do you think you're going?" Kurenai asked, annoyed at Naruto's actions.

"We're continuing the mission. I'll explain everything as we continue our journey." Naruto said, not even bothering to turn around.

Both Hinata and Shino decided to follow Naruto. Kurenai let out a sigh and motioned Tazuna to follow her.

A few minutes of walking later, Naruto decided to explain his actions.

"Teacher, the reason why Tazuna lied and made this mission a C class instead of the more expensive B class is because the country of Wave is a very poor country. Even the Daimyo's in the country don't have much money. I also know who the person is who is sending these missing-nins. That person is none other than Gatou." Naruto stated.

"Gatou, from the Gatou Company? Isn't he supposed to run a large shipping company?" Kurenai asked.

Tazuna decided to answer the question.

"Officially, Gatou does run a large shipping company, but secretly, he sells drugs and other illegal items. He also uses ninja and gang members to make sure that he takes over businesses and countries. He is a super nasty man." Tazuna explained.

Naruto continued from that point.

"You see, if Tazuna completes the bridge, the monopoly that Gatou has in the country would be ruined. Because of that, he fears the bridge being completed, so he hired missing-nins to assassinate Tazuna."

No one spoke for a little while after that and the group soon found their way to the ocean. The group saw that the area had a lot of fog and that there was a ferryman waiting for them. The group went with the ferryman and started to head over to the country of Wave. The crew soon made it to the island and the ferryman bid the group farewell.

The five people continued their journey to make it to Tazuna's house. Thirty minutes later, Naruto noticed that there was a white rabbit and thought it to be really suspicious. Before Naruto could contemplate any more on the matter, a giant sword made its way towards the group.

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**NEXT CHAPTER: BATTLE WITH ZABUSA AND THE TREE CLIMBING EXERCISE**

**Please Review**


	6. Chapter 6

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: I've talked to a dear friend of mine on the subject of Naruto/Kyuubi/Hinata and after talking with my friend, I've decided not to make the pairing during this story. This story will still be Naruto/Kyuubi, just without Hinata. I might write another story involving that paring, but I want to finish this story first, as well as _Lunar: Revised_ and my original story _Purification_.

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_**Rising Phoenix**_

Shino, Kurenai, Hinata, and Tazuna all ducked when the giant sword was making it near their vicinity. Naruto remained calm because he was expecting an attack by the enemy considering that things were real quiet after the events with the Demon Brothers.

The sword went flying towards Naruto now since Naruto was the only one left who was standing. Naruto extended his hand out and caught the giant sword by its hilt. Naruto started to lean forward a little and had to grab the hilt using both hands. After that, Naruto started to maintain his balance carrying the very heavy sword.

'Dang this thing is heavy. It has to be at least a hundred pounds.' Naruto complained in his thoughts.

"Impressive." A ninja said, coming down from a nearby tree.

Naruto looked at the ninja and knew who it was. Naruto placed the sword down to the ground and looked at the ninja. Kurenai also looked at the ninja when she got off of the ground.

"Who are you?" Kurenai asked.

"Be careful." Naruto warned. "This man is known as Momochi Zabuza, the Devil of the Mist. He is an upper A class missing-nin. He is also known as one of the seven swordsman of the mist."

"Oh, you know about me?" Zabuza asked.

"I learned a little about you. All I know is that you attempted a coup d'état when you were an ANBU of the mist and failed. You also killed over a hundred students at the present Genin Exams in Mist when you yourself weren't even a ninja yet."

"I don't know how a brat like you knows information like that, but I clearly see you as the greatest threat here." Zabuza proclaimed.

Kurenai was confused with what was going on but decided to keep quiet. She then heard that Zabuza thought that Naruto was a bigger threat than she was and she started to use some hand seals to use a Genjutsu.

Zabuza grabbed his sword that Naruto placed onto the grounds and moved over the water. No one except for Tazuna was surprised at this action because of the Genin test with Naruto. Zabuza started to collect a pretty fair concentration of chakra and used a technique.

"Ninja Technique: Hidden Mist." Zabuza said out loud.

A thick mist started to appear and Zabuza used the time to disappear in the mist.

"Everybody be careful, Shinobi from the mist are experts in the art of Silent Killing." Naruto shouted to everyone.

Kurenai stopped making the hand seals when she saw that Zabuza was using the hidden mist technique. The Genjutsu she was going to use required the opponent to use his eyes and the mist prevented that. She then heard Naruto's warning and moved over near Tazuna. Naruto also moved in that area and moved in front of Tazuna while Kurenai was at his back. Shino and Hinata were in a defensive position and were also on opposite sides of each other. The formation looked like this; Tazuna is facing towards the direction of the lake nearby. Naruto is in front of Tazuna while Kurenai was behind. To Tazuna's left is Shino and to the right of Tazuna is Hinata.

"There are eight targets." Zabuza said from within the mist.

"W-w-what was t-that?" Hinata asked, starting to shiver in fear.

Shino was feeling the same way but kept silent.

"Throat, Spinal Column, Lungs, Liver, the Jugular Vein, the Subclavian Artery, Kidney and Heart. So many choices, what vital place should I strike?" Zabuza said, chuckling a little.

Kurenai was feeling a little bit scared with the terrible blood thirst that's begin released but was trained to handle it. Naruto on the other hand had felt a similar feeling of bloodlust before and moved into a different defensive position. Both Shino and Hinata were deathly afraid of Zabuza at this point and wish that would die so that the suspense would end because of the fact that their lives are in their enemy's hands.

Naruto and Kurenai started to gather up some chakra and the two of them dispelled the mist that was surrounding them in a ten foot radius.

"Hinata, Shino, don't worry." Kurenai said soothingly.

"I won't let my comrades die." Naruto replied instantly after Kurenai finished.

"We'll see about that." Zabuza said, appearing right behind both Naruto and Shino.

Hinata grabbed Tazuna's hand and moved him to a different area. Shino followed the two of them.

Zabuza grabbed the sword and was about to slice Naruto in half when Kurenai stabbed Zabuza in the back with the kunai. Zabuza then turned into water and went onto the ground. Another Zabuza appeared behinds Kurenai and was about to cut her up when Naruto pushed her out of the way. Naruto got hit with the sword Zabuza carried and he too turned into vapor. Kurenai understood what happened and smiled.

'Clever, he created a water clone and used the substitution technique to hide himself until the timing was right.' Kurenai thought.

Kurenai got up quickly and moved into a defensive position. Zabuza appeared Kurenai again and this time Kurenai was ready. Kurenai took out a double bladed Kunai to repel the sword strike that Zabuza gave. The Kunai was already penetrated half way and Kurenai was forced to jump back and moved onto the lake. Naruto appeared again and used a kunai to stab Zabuza in the back. Zabuza was a little startled when Naruto managed to hit him but it was all in vain because that Zabuza was also a water clone.

"Clever brat, but not clever enough." Zabuza said as Naruto revealed himself.

Zabuza used his fast speed and went behind Kurenai. He punched her in the face and she was sent swimming down the lake. Kurenai decided to take advantage of the situation and take a small break.

'Why is the water getting so heavy?' She thought. 'It's just like that time when Naruto placed me' that's when Kurenai realized what Zabuza was going to do.

Zabuza appeared behind Kurenai and quickly did a set of hand seals.

"Water Prison Technique."

Kurenai was now stuck in a water prison exactly the same as the one Naruto used a few weeks ago.

"Fighting against the two of you could become troublesome if it lasts for a while. I'll have a few water clones defeat the rest of you." Zabuza said to Naruto, creating another single water clone.

"You're not the only one who could use that technique." Naruto said as he too started to create 5 water clones.

Naruto set the 5 water clones to attack Zabuza and moved into the bushes nearby. This confused everybody and were wondering what Naruto was planning on doing next.

'Hey Kyuubi, is it me or do you sense a second presence?' Naruto asked Kyuubi.

'**I sense it too. Give me a body and I'll keep an eye on the mysterious figure.'** Kyuubi answered.

Naruto created Kyuubi's body and Kyuubi went off undetected to keep an eye on the other presence.

Naruto came out of the bushes and saw that his five water clones were defeated.

"You thought that your water clones were a match against mine?" the water clone Zabuza asked.

"If water clones won't work. Then how about this! Shadow Replication Technique."

Naruto created fifteen shadow replications and all fifteen went out to attack the Zabuza water clone.

When the shadow clones were close, they all started to dog pile Zabuza.

'Almost there.' Naruto thought seeing that a few more shadow clones were still jumping on the dog pile. 'Now!'

The shadow clones that were surrounding the water clone Zabuza exploded.

"Heh, the great clone explosion technique. Gotta love it." Naruto said to Zabuza.

Kurenai as well as everyone was really shocked.

'I have to thank Itachi for teaching that move to me after I passed the Genin test Kurenai gave.' Naruto thought.

"Who are you?" Zabuza asked.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. The man who will one day become Hokage." Naruto replied.

'Uzumaki, where have I heard that name before?' Zabuza thought.

Naruto saw that Zabuza was distracted for a short time and that was all he need. Naruto started to do a few hand seals and made sure that he was close enough to the lake.

Zabuza snapped out of his thoughts and saw what Naruto was doing.

'This is bad. If I release the water prison technique, I'll be facing against two enemies. If I take on his next attack, I'll lose the water prison anyway and take in a whole lot of damage.'

Naruto finished the seals and unleashed his attack.

"Water Dragon Missile." Zabuza saw the water serpent make its way towards him and was forced to let go of the water prison to make sure that he doesn't take any damage. Kurenai moved away from Zabuza almost immediately and started to cast a Genjutsu. Zabuza moved over to dry land and recuperated for a short time.

Naruto didn't bother to attack Zabuza right now because of the Water Dragon Missile. Naruto used up most of his chakra in the attack and only has enough for one final attack.

Kurenai finished the hand seals and used her strongest Genjutsu attack.

"Illusionary Technique: Tree Bind Death"

The ground below Zabuza started to sink a little and a tree was growing from behind him. The tree also grew vines which binded Zabuza onto the tree. Zabuza was getting angry at the fact that things weren't going his way at all. Kurenai's body started to form from within the tree right above Zabuza's head. She was holding a kunai in which she was going to kill him with. Kurenai had the kunai at Zabuza's throat when three large needles pierced Zabuza's neck. The Genjutsu was cancelled immediately and Kurenai looked at the source of the needles.

A young man, similar age to Naruto and the rest of the Genins, appeared wearing a mask showing the symbol of mist. Kurenai checked Zabuza's body to see what his status was.

"He's dead." Kurenai replied out loud.

Naruto was about to reply something but collapsed for some unknown reason onto the ground.

The masked ninja came from the top of the tree down onto the ground near Kurenai.

"Thank you for your help. I hope you don't mind my interfering." The masked ninja replied.

"If I'm not mistaken, aren't you a hunter-nin of the Mist?" Kurenai asked.

"I am indeed. Now, I must dispose of the corpse lest they give up secrets to our foes." The hunter-nin answered.

The ninja grabbed Zabuza's body and teleported away. Kurenai looked at Naruto and the rest of her team. She walked over to them and started to speak.

"Shino, grab Naruto and carry him to our destination. Hinata, use you Byakugan to scout out the area to see if there are any more enemies."

"Y-y-yes." Hinata answered, as she activated her Byakugan.

Shino walked over to Naruto and picked him up. He then placed Naruto over his shoulder for the rest of the journey.

Unknown to them all, Kyuubi watched the entire scene and when Naruto wakes up, she had some interesting news to tell him. For now however, she decided to follow the group to their destination.

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At Tazuna's house, Naruto finally awoken and was feeling really drained. 

"What happened?" Naruto asked a little groggily.

Inside the room where Naruto's at, he was being surrounded by team 8, Tazuna, and another person he doesn't know.

"Zabuza is dead. A hunter-nin picked up the corpse and disposed of it. After that, we took you here to Tazuna's house." Kurenai answered.

"I see." Naruto replied, feeling a little bit better. "Tell me, do you know how hunter-nins operate?" Naruto asked Kurenai.

"Yes. They hunt down and dispose the corpses of missing-nin. When they dispose of the missing-nin's body, they are supposed to destroy the bodies of those they kill right…" Kurenai didn't finish because she realized something.

"Zabuza is still alive." Naruto replied.

"H-how is he s-still alive?" Hinata asked.

"Aren't you over thinking this?" Tazuna asked, afraid of what would happen if Zabuza was still alive.

"Tell me, how did the hunter-nin dispose of the corpses?" Naruto asked.

"We didn't see it. He took the body with him." Shino answered monotonously.

"Think about the weapon that the hunter-nin used. They were acupuncture needles." Kurenai asked.

Shino immediately got the point.

"W-what?" Hinata asked.

"You see, with acupuncture needles, its easy to create the illusion of death if the user has complete knowledge of the human physiology. Hunter-nins are trained to dispose of corpses using that knowledge." Naruto answered.

"Alright team. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to increase the training." Kurenai said.

Naruto nodded his head while Shino said nothing. Hinata stuttered an okay.

"Hey Shino, before you leave, did you place some bugs on Zabuza just incase something happened?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. I thought it was weird that a hunter-nin would leave that quickly so I had a couple bugs placed on that person. This way, the bugs will alert us when the two of them come next time." Shino answered.

Ounce everyone was done talking, they all left the room to make sure that Naruto gets plenty of rest for tomorrows training. When everybody left the room, Naruto looked in the direction of the ceiling.

"You can come on down now, Kyuubi." Naruto said, looking at Kyuubi as she revealed herself.

"I see that your senses are still as sharp." Kyuubi replied.

"Why did you drain all of my chakra?" Naruto asked, a little bit angry.

"That boy, he could have defeated you in the condition you were in. Also, he thinks of Zabuza as his most precious person. He would go to the extent of sacrificing his life to make sure that Zabuza was safe." Kyuubi answered, taking a look at Naruto to see if he's alright.

"I see." Naruto replied. "He probably had a life similar to mine." Naruto said quietly to himself.

Kyuubi heard what Naruto said and frowned.

"Why don't you get some rest for now? We can start learning another of your father's techniques tomorrow?" Kyuubi asked.

Naruto laid down on the futon he was on and started to fall asleep, having his back turned slightly. Kyuubi decided that she didn't want to be inside the cage for now and went under the blanket with Naruto. Naruto blushed when Kyuubi had her arms around him and her breasts were pushing against his back but didn't mind when sleep claimed his body.

An hour later, Kurenai went into the room where Naruto was at and saw that there was a foreign girl sleeping with Naruto. She didn't know who the girl was, but by the way Naruto was smiling in his sleep, she was a friend of his and decided to leave the two alone. Kurenai placed a Genjutsu called False Surrounding to give the illusion that Naruto was alone in case someone decides to visit.

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Naruto woke up the next morning and saw that his head was between Kyuubi's breasts. Naruto blushed crimson red and tried to pull himself away. That however failed because Kyuubi had her hands around Naruto's back and was squeezing Naruto towards her. A minute later, Kyuubi awoke and felt a foreign object touching her breasts. When she checked to see what it was, she saw that she was holding Naruto in an erotic embrace. Kyuubi blushed and saw that Naruto was still trying to get away. Kyuubi let go of her embrace and saw that there was no one else inside the room. Kyuubi noticed that she was running low on energy and went back into the seal. When Naruto tried to contact Kyuubi about the incident, he found that he couldn't contact he and figured that she was really embarrassed at what happened. 

Kurenai entered the room a few seconds later and saw that Naruto was alone in the room.

"Naruto, I need to talk to you about something?" Kurenai asked.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

Before Kurenai could ask her question, the same person that Naruto saw yester arrived and announced that breakfast was ready.

Naruto forgot about Kurenai's question and went down to get some breakfast. At the breakfast table, Naruto found out that the person who woke him up was named Tsunami and that she was Tazuna's daughter. He also found out that Tsunami had a son name Inari. Naruto didn't like Inari because of the way he acted. Inari said that they were wasting their time because the man Gatou always gets his way no matter what.

An hour later, Kurenai brought her team over into the forest. There in the forest, Kurenai started to explain the purpose of their training.

"Today, Hinata," Kurenai said, looking at Hinata, "I will be teaching you how to walk up trees without the use of your legs. Shino," Kurenai then looked at Shino, "you are going to work on your taijutsu. I know that you fight using your bugs and all, but what would happen if you run across a taijutsu expert who uses no chakra?" Kurenai asked. "The reason why I suggest this is because since you're an Aburame, you already have perfect chakra control because if you didn't, the bugs in your body would consume your body. If you practice on you taijutsu, you would become a lot stronger."

Shino understood what she meant. The only type of bugs he has in his body right now are male and female chakra draining bugs. If he somehow was forced to fight a ninja who doesn't use chakra, all he could do is waste chakra. The only way he could face such an opponent would be to collect a species of bugs that would be effective, but that species of bugs are too powerful for Shino to control at the moment.

"And Naruto," she replied, looking at Naruto, "I'll teach you a technique that's called the Hazy Field, a technique where it distorts your body. Because of the fact that your body is distorted, it'll make it hard for your opponents to hit you vitals because of the warped space around your body." Kurenai finished.

The three of them nodded and Kurenai led Hinata over to some trees and started to teach her about tree walking. With Naruto and Shino, Naruto created a modified shadow replication and looked at Shino.

"Shino, this here is a modified shadow replication. This one can take up to five hits depending on where the hits are located at. Obviously, if this clone takes a hit on the head or any vital organ, it will disappear. This clone will also instruct you on basic taijutsu since I'm pretty confident that I'm better than Kurenai at this department." Naruto explained.

"I see. Thank you for your help." Shino replied.

"Anytime." Both Naruto and the shadow replication replied at the same time.

The shadow replication Naruto started to lead Shino into another part of the forest and train in taijutsu.

"That looked pretty interesting." Kurenai said as she watched the shadow replication Naruto leave with Shino.

"You heard what I said to him then?" Naruto asked.

"I only heard that you said that you were better at taijutsu than I was." Kurenai answered. 'Which is probably true.' Kurenai continued in her thoughts. "Naruto, why don't we go to a different area? I still need to talk to you about something."

Naruto nodded his head and Kurenai led Naruto into a different part of the forest. Naruto checked to see if the two were alone, and when they were, Naruto looked at Kurenai to see what she had to say.

"So Naruto, who was that woman that was with you last night?" Kurenai asked.

Naruto blushed and realized that Kurenai saw Kyuubi sleeping with him.

"I might as well tell you since you are my instructor and I trust you." Naruto replied.

Kurenai didn't know how to respond to that.

"The girl I was with, well," Naruto paused for a few seconds, "she's Kyuubi." Naruto finished.

"Kyuubi, as in the nine-tailed fox demon?" Kurenai asked.

"Yeah." Naruto simply replied.

"How is it that she got out of the seal?" Kurenai asked, shocked at hearing Naruto say that it was Kyuubi.

"Simple, I create the most powerful modified shadow replication I can make and she transfers her own consciousness into the modified body. Watch I'll show you." Naruto answered and before Kurenai could react, the modified shadow replication was formed and it changed into the form of Kyuubi's human form.

"Hello Kurenai. I hear a lot about you from Naruto." Kyuubi replied.

Kurenai was frozen stiff and a little jealous. Frozen stiff because the person in front of her was the demon that destroyed half of Hidden Leaf, and jealous because of the body that Naruto had given her.

"Tell me, why is the body based like that?" Kurenai asked, wondering if it came from Naruto's imagination.

'This is what my body looks like in my human form, just without the tails or the ears." Kyuubi answered.

"I see" Was all Kurenai responded.

"Why don't I get practicing on that new technique that you told me about earlier, I don't use Genjutsu a lot but this one sees like it could be vital depending on who my opponent is." Naruto said after a brief silence.

Kurenai showed Naruto the hand seals and Naruto tried out the technique. Naruto didn't do too badly the first time, but he still had a quite a way to improve.

"Hey teach, do you think that you could show me that technique?" Naruto asked.

Kurenai showed Naruto the technique and Naruto mimicked her. A few seconds later, Naruto showed that he did the technique almost perfectly.

"You see, once I see a technique, I keep the movements inside my mind and mimic what the user is doing. Since I have excellent chakra control, I see how this technique is done. Why don't you supervise Shino for now while I take a look at Hinata is doing?" Naruto asked.

Kurenai nodded and headed off to the direction Shino was at. Naruto headed over to where Hinata was at and saw that she was about a quarter of the way up the tree already.

"Not bad Hinata." Naruto said while Hinata was walking up the tree.

Hinata froze for a brief second and during that second, Hinata started to fall down onto the ground. Naruto caught Hinata right before she hit the ground. Hinata blushed when she was being held by Naruto. Naruto placed Hinata down and looked at her.

"Hinata, you need to be more confident in yourself. Why is it that you're always shy around people and are easily distracted?" Naruto asked.

Hinata looked down onto the ground and kept silent.

"Is it because of that incident several years ago with the incident with Cloud?" Naruto asked in a serious voice.

Hinata's eyes widened with shock.

"Thought so. Hinata, why don't you take advantage of that situation and become stronger. I know that you won't be as strong as Neji, from what I heard, but why don't you strengthen yourself. What would happen if Kurenai and I were killed? Tazuna would have to rely on you and because of the way you are now; you are just getting in the way. What I want you to do is become stronger so that you could protect those who are precious to you. When you think it over, come seek me somewhere in this forest and I'll help you become stronger." Naruto said to Hinata.

Naruto left and didn't notice the look of sadness that was on Hinata's face.

Back in Naruto's original training area, Kyuubi had a few things to say.

"Don't you think you went a little too far?" Kyuubi asked.

"I said what I said, the only thing we can do for now is hope that she wishes to become stronger." Naruto replied.

"I guess, but you still could have been a little gentler." Kyuubi said to Naruto.

"Why don't I start practicing the Body Flicker Technique?" Naruto asked Kyuubi.

Kyuubi looked inside of Naruto's bag and took out the scroll that had the Body Flicker Technique inside it.

Naruto read the scroll and saw that it took the fourth one year to complete the move a couple months after that to completely master it. Naruto finished reading the instructions and started to train in the technique.

Later during the day, Kurenai watch as Naruto was doing another move and went to see Hinata, thinking that this was a move that Naruto wanted to keep to himself for now.

At the area Hinata was at, Kurenai saw that Hinata was crying. Kurenai moved over to Hinata and placed her in a gentle hug.

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Kurenai asked in a soothing voice.

"I-it's Naruto. He told me that I was in the way and t-that I should bec-come stronger." Hinata answered.

Kurenai was surprised at what Hinata had said. She didn't think that Naruto was the type of person to say such things. She was also a little surprised that Hinata stuttered less then usual.

"I-I've made a de-decision." Hinata said a couple minutes later.

"N-Naruto s-said that I should b-become stronger to p-protect those who are precious to m-me. I wish to become stronger." Hinata replied, showing a bit of confidence.

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**NEXT CHAPTER: NARUTO TALKS WITH HAKU AND THE BATTLE AT THE BRIDGE**

**Please Review**


	7. Chapter 7

**DON'T OWN NARUTO**

**Author's Notes: I'm going to alter things just a little bit for now on. One big change that I'll make is that I'll be using bold and italics for attacks for now on.

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**Responses to the Reviewers: I decided to answer a few questions to put some of you at ease.**

**Kazanoe: I guess I did over do the stutter. I'll make sure she stutters a lot less during the rest of the story.**

**Fic Slayr: The Chuunin Exams is where Naruto will confront Sasuke. From there, he'll try to convince Sasuke that Orochimaru was the enemy and not Itachi. Don't know how I'm going to do that yet, I'm still in the planning stages on that.**

**Daniel Lynx: I'll tone down the power a little. I'm just saying that Naruto is powerful because he had training with three of the most powerful beings in the shinobi world. Kyuubi, the strongest of the nine great demons, Shinta, a warrior that is known by all, and Itachi, who was considered to be the next great prodigy since Hatake Kakashi. **

**Aznpuffyhair: I plan on adding more humor starting from the next chapter on.**

**Night-Owl-123: The only reason why I made Kurenai a little weak and ignorant is because I think that all she can really do is Genjutsu. I know that she has talent in the other fields of Tai and Nin-jutsu, from the way she was when she fought against Itachi, she was easily beaten. I also made her a little ignorant to the fact that Haku was not a real hunter-nin because the great genius Kakashi also made that very same mistake. If Kakashi made that mistake, I think that others would make the same mistake also.

* * *

**

_**Rising Phoenix**_

After Hinata's vow that she wants to become stronger, she and Kurenai went out to seek for Naruto, who was still training with Kyuubi on the Body Flicker Technique. On the way there, the two of them, Hinata and Kurenai, met up with a beaten up Shino.

"S-shino, what happened?" Hinata asked.

"Naruto's clone is quite powerful in taijutsu." Shino answered.

"Let's go and see Naruto. I need to talk to him about something." Kurenai responded a few seconds after Shino spoke.

The three of them made it to Naruto's training ground and saw that Naruto was alone. Kurenai figured that Naruto sensed their presence and sent Kyuubi off into the seal.

"Hinata, glad to see you've decided to come." Naruto said, panting in exhaustion.

"Naruto, why did you say those things to Hinata?" Kurenai asked.

"She told you everything?" Naruto asked.

"I only heard that you thought that she was in the way and that she should become stronger." Kurenai answered.

Naruto looked to his right and saw a stump sticking out of the ground. Naruto moved over to the stump and sat down. He then looked at Kurenai and responded to her question.

"Let me tell you of a story." Naruto said with look of sadness in his face.

"Right after my tenth birthday, a person who I thought of as a father died. He taught me many things and I was very grateful to him. He was the one who always told me that I should always fight for the ones who are precious to me and not fight just for myself.

"After he died, my friend Kyuu took me to a town near by. Back then, I was what you would call stupid, loud, and annoying. In the town nearby, Kyuu had some things to do in the town so I was left alone." Naruto didn't want to say that Kyuu, or rather Kyuubi, ran out of energy already and he needed to wait a little before giving her a new body. Kurenai also knew who Naruto was referring too and kept silent.

"I met up with a girl named Kasumi right after Kyuu left. She was four years older than me and was a kind and gentle person. She was also an orphan, the same as me. When we went traveling around the town, we encountered a group of missing-nins known as the Predators."

Kurenai let out a gasp because she has heard of things that this group of missing-nin did and it wasn't pretty. Naruto continued on with his story.

"Back then, I was basically the opposite of Hinata. I was loud, not afraid to express myself, and I was overconfident in my abilities. I thought that I was powerful enough to take on anybody no matter what their level was. Oh, how wrong I was. When we encountered the group known as Predators, they grabbed Kasumi and went off into a near by alley. I followed and tried to beat them, confident in my ability.

"Because I was loud and overconfident, I announced my arrival and said that I would beat the crap out of them and rescue Kasumi. Two of them smiled maliciously and started to advance at me while the other three members watched, holding Kasumi who was half naked on the ground. I barely managed to defeat the two that advanced towards me and a third member grabbed me from behind when I was weak. They forced me to watch as they were about to rape Kasumi of her innocence and I used up most of the power I had left to escape from the holds of the third ninja.

"I defeated the ninja that was holding me down and moved to protect Kasumi. One of the two remaining grabbed a katana and started to strike at me. That person managed to give me a direct hit close to the heart and I went down to the ground in severe pain. The man with the katana was about to take my head off when Kasumi interrupted the attack using her own body as a shield. When I asked her why she sacrificed herself for someone she barely even knows, she said that I was a precious person to her and that I had to be protected.

"Kasumi lied dead on the ground in the cold alleyway and I went completely berserk. I totally annihilated the two ninjas that were left using my second source of chakra. I'll tell you more on that later. After I killed the two, their bodies were completely unrecognizable. After that, I cried and was forced to carry Kasumi's dead body out of town and buried her in a field of flowers she told me about earlier. Ever since that incident, I found that I was still too weak to protect those who are precious to me. I decided to become stronger and with the help of Kyuu and Weasel, (Itachi) I gathered the strength that I need. Right now, the people who I consider precious to me are Kyuu, Weasel, you guys, and the third."

"T-that's s-so sad." Hinata replied, tears clearly visible in her eyes and were streaming down her face.

Kurenai looked impassive, but she was feeling sad for Naruto's loss. Even when Naruto left Hidden Leaf five years ago, he barely had any friends.

"What's rape?" Shino asked.

He might not show it but Shino was also feeling a little bit sad. Hinata looked at Kurenai and Naruto wondering the same thing.

"Have either of you been given 'the talk'?" Naruto asked.

Both Shino and Hinata shook their heads.

"You won't understand then until you parents tell you 'the talk'. Even I didn't know what the thugs were actually doing until a couple months ago when I was given that talk." Naruto replied.

"Naruto, what is your fighting level at right now?" Kurenai asked.

"I think I'm at the higher Chuunin level with my fighting skills. I don't really know since I really haven't fought with anyone other than my brother and Kyuu for the past few years. My specialty lies with my ability to create clones and my taijutsu. My Ninjutsu is that of a mid to high lever Chuunin. My Genjutsu is that of a low Chuunin. The only reason why I was faster than you was because I took off my weights before I left because of a warning that I receive from my brother."

Kurenai looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was close to setting. Kurenai looked at her team and spoke.

"Why don't we head back to Tazuna's? It's starting to become darker out here."

"I'll join you in a couple minutes. There's something else I need to do real fast." Naruto replied.

Kurenai knew the reason why the two wanted to stay and motioned for Hinata to follow her to Tazuna's.

"Is it my imagination or is it that we're being watched?" Naruto asked.

"It's that masked hunter-nin that we encountered a couple days ago." Shino replied.

"You can come on down now." Naruto said out to the trees.

A few seconds later, a young girl appeared, wearing a simple pink kimono that had images of sakura blossoms around it.

"Hello, I see that you managed to find me. You must be of a high level." The girl replied.

"Not really, your that male hunter-nin that saved Zabuza's life the other day." Shino replied.

The boy looked shocked at being discovered so easily.

"How did you know?" the boy asked.

"I placed a bug on you before you left just in case something happened. I used the bugs of the opposite gender to detect the one that is on you." Shino answered.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"Zabuza is busy finding out some information. Tell me, why is the name Uzumaki really important to him?" the boy asked.

"How would I know, I've been an orphan for most of my life so I wouldn't know the meaning behind the Uzumaki name. All I know is that Uzumaki was the surname that my mother carried." Naruto replied in honesty.

"I see." The boy replied.

"Next time we meet, we might become enemies." The boy said. "And by the way, my name is Haku." Haku said, using a teleportation skill to teleport away.

"Let's head over to Tazuna's." Naruto said a few seconds later.

Shino nodded his head.

* * *

After Haku left, he went back to the hideout that he and Zabuza are currently using. Haku entered the room and saw that Zabuza was reading through a couple of books.

"So Haku, what did you find out about Uzumaki?" Zabuza asked.

"All I found out was that it was the surname that his mother had." Haku answered.

Zabuza stopped reading the book he had and grabbed a thick tome from a shelf nearby. Zabuza opened the book to about half way and started glimpsing. A few minutes later, he found his answer.

"I can't believe this. Someone from the Uzumaki line is still alive." Zabuza said with amazement.

"What it is Zabuza?" Haku asked curious.

"According to this tome, the Uzumaki clan was wiped out by the demon Kyuubi twelve years ago. They had some type of unique bloodline that is not written in this tome. It says that the Uzumaki were a distant relation to that of the Momochi." Zabuza replied, looking over another page in the tome.

"You mean to say that…" Haku began.

"Is that Uzumaki Naruto is my distant cousin." Zabuza finished.

"I'm going to quit working for Gatou and talk to Uzumaki. I now remember where I heard the name Uzumaki before. Uzumaki Haruka used to be one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist. She was said to have died of a mysterious cause twelve years ago. The same day as the Kyuubi attack." Zabuza replied. "I had forgotten about Haruka because out of the seven swordsmen, she's the only one that's dead at the moment."

* * *

At Tazuna's, Naruto and company were eating dinner that was made by Tsunami and a little help from Hinata.

When Naruto placed his head down on the table to get a brief rest, Tazuna's grandson, Inari had tears running down his eyes.

"Tell me, why do you wear yourself out? No matter how hard you try, you'll never be a match for Gatou or his thugs." Inari yelled.

Everyone except for Naruto and Shino looked at Inari with shock. Shino was shocked, he just didn't show it.

"I'm not going to lose." Naruto said, grabbing some chopsticks to eat some rice.

"You're ticking me off. From the way you act, you don't know a thing about suffering or loneliness or what my life was like." Inari replied, using the same tone of voice as before.

"You figure that it's noble for you to star in a melodrama and treat everyone around you like guests at your pity party?" Naruto asked, grabbing some soy sauce nearby.

Everyone was still looking at the exchange going on with Naruto and Inari.

"You're nothing more than a big baby." Naruto said in all seriousness. Naruto stopped eating and looked at Inari with a glare.

Inari ran from the dining table and headed outside.

"Don't you think you went a little too far?" Kurenai asked.

* * *

Outside, Inari ran until he thought he was alone. He started to remember memories of his past not long after when man wearing a black cloak appeared.

"Hello, what's the matter?" the man asked.

"This kid Naruto. He told me that I was being a baby because I always cry." Inari answered, wiping away a couple tears.

"Why did he tell you that?" the man replied.

"I told him that he knew nothing about suffering or loneliness." Inari said, tears now gone from his eyes.

"Naruto is one person who knows a great deal about loneliness and suffering. He grew up without having any parents at all and he always made an effort for people to recognize him. The reason why he wanted recognition was because he was shunned by his entire village. He was always alone and people didn't want to have their children to even associate with him." The man said, looking a little bit sad.

Inari looked at the man completely shocked. He never figured that Naruto had that type of life. Naruto's life was worse on a whole different level.

"You must've grown under his skin to have said things like that. He probably understands you better than anyone here." The man replied.

Inari looked at the ocean for a brief second and then looked at the man. He saw that the man wasn't there anymore. Was it a dream, an illusion? Inari didn't know, but he would remember what that man had told him.

* * *

The next morning, Kurenai and the rest of team 8 arrived at the bridge to guard Tazuna. For now, Naruto was helping Hinata with tree walking by helping her walk under the bridge. Whenever she would lose control, Naruto would be there to catch her. Shino was busy practicing a kata that the Naruto clone showed him and Kurenai watched as another worker under Tazuna quit his job.

About twenty minutes later, a thick mist appeared and two figures appeared. Zabuza and Haku appeared, fully clothed for battle, Zabuza, having his sword out onto his hands, and Haku wearing the hunter-nin mask and holding a few acupuncture needles.

Kurenai and Shino moved into a defensive position, ready to fight with Zabuza.

"Where is Uzumaki Naruto?" Zabuza asked.

"Behind you." Naruto said twenty feet from behind Zabuza and Haku.

Zabuza turned around and saw that Naruto and the other girl that Naruto was with were in an offensive position unlike the other two.

"I am not here for a battle. I need to talk to you about something." Zabuza said, putting his sword away.

Naruto looked a little cautious and kept himself in the fighting stance he was in.

"Why do you need to talk?" Naruto asked, not planning to let down his guard.

"I need to talk to you about…" Zabuza started, but he was interfered when a new voice spoke from the other side of the bridge.

"So this is where you are. Are you going to attack the old man, or are you going to betray me?"

"Gatou." Zabuza said a little menacingly. "I decided not to kill the old man."

"I see, well I was planning on disposing of you anyway. Be lucky that I didn't send any samurai and thugs out to destroy the village. All of the money I was going to pay you with is going to this guy." Gatou said as a cloaked ninja arrived in front of Gatou.

"This is Masaki Shiro from the Country of Snow. He is an old friend of mine and he will be the one to kill you all." Gatou said as Shiro took off his cloak.

Shiro is a man with the height of 6'3. He had black unruly hair and a giant scar across his face. His clothing consisted of the standard Snow ninja attire with armor on his chest and arms. On his hands are some iron claws and his forehead protector was on his right bicep with a single slash through the symbol.

"Zabuza, looks like we don't have to fight each other anymore." Kurenai said, moving beside Zabuza.

"Does anyone have any information on Snow Country and what their shinobi are like?" Haku asked.

"I don't remember much about Snow Country. All I know is that there was some type of revolt that happened about ten years ago or so. That's all I know." Naruto said out loud.

"Looks like we're fighting a completely unknown enemy then." Zabuza replied, taking out his sword.

"I wouldn't use the hidden mist technique just yet. We should analyze our opponent before we doing anything that could prove to be futile." Kurenai said to Zabuza.

"I agree. You'll lead the first attack and I'll follow shortly." Zabuza said.

"I'll start things off then." Naruto replied.

"**_Mass Shadow Replication Technique"_** Naruto yell out loud.

A couple hundred clones filled up the bridge and were all looking at Shiro and Gatou. Shiro smirked and started to use a technique after completing the hand seals.

"**_Ice Element: Swallow Attack"_** Shiro yelled in a low deep voice.

Spikes of ice came from no where when Shiro waved his hand and nearly a quarter of Naruto's clones were destroyed. After the attack finished, Naruto had all his clones threw shuriken at his enemy. Shiro crossed his arms in a defensive guard and all of the shuriken bounced off of the armor. Naruto tried throwing a few kunai after that and the kunais bounce off as easily as the shuriken did.

Naruto then tried to get his clones to use taijutsu on the enemy but Shiro kept destroying them quickly with the iron claws he has.

"Looks like taijutsu, shuriken and kunai are useless against him. Why don't we try to use Ninjutsu?" Naruto asked, looking at Zabuza while Naruto's clones distract Shiro.

Naruto and Zabuza go near the edge of the bridge and used the same attack.

"**_Water Element: Water Dragon Missile"_**

The two water serpents intertwined with each other and headed straight towards Shiro. Shrio stood still and waited for the attack to hit. When the attack was five feet away, a barrier appeared and the two serpents changed back into regular water.

"Dang, looks like even Ninjutsu is useless. What type of armor does he have?" Naruto asked.

Shiro saw that one of the fighters, a young girl, was looking quite scared and started to do some hand seals.

"_**Ice Element: Cooling Frost"**_

The area around Shiro started to change into ice and Shiro started to use another attack after he quickly used the hand seals.

"Hinata, watch out." Kurenai yelled.

"Too late." Shiro replied.

"_**Ice Element: Ice Prison Technique"**_

Columns of ice started to rise from the ice that Shiro made and the columns were quickly heading towards Hinata. Naruto tried to get to Hinata using his fastest speed, but it was already too late. Hinata got enveloped inside the column of ice.

"She's now trapped inside my ice prison. If you want to free her, you have to defeat me." Shiro proclaimed.

"Why you!" Naruto growled in anger.

Shino decided to attack this time and sent out his bugs to see if they could go through the armor. Shiro saw through this and used another attack.

"_**Ice Element: Ice Prison Technique"**_

The columns of ice started headed towards Shino and when it grabbed Shino, Shino transformed into a bunch of bugs.

"My Bug Replication technique. Since my body relies on me using my bugs, I'm capable of creating another replication by using my bugs. Seeing right now that my bugs are frozen, it looks like I won't be able to continue this fight.

"I'll go then. You follow me from behind." Haku said.

Haku went close to Shiro and started to throw the acupuncture needles at Shiro. Out of the four the Haku threw, three of them hit the armor and bounced off while the fourth one managed to graze his cheek.

"Looks like weapons will work on him. We'll just have to avoid the armor." Haku analyzed.

'I guess it's time to use my secret weapon' Haku thought. Haku started to do a set of one handed seals.

'One handed seals?' Naruto, Shiro, and Kurenai thought in unison.

"_**Special Technique: Flying Water Needles"**_

Water needles started to form from the moisture in the air and from the water on the ground. The water needles all flew towards Shiro and Shiro's armor created the same barrier that stopped Naruto and Zabuza's water dragons.

'Looks like that armor can even block Bloodline abilities. Looks like I'll have to use the Demonic Ice Mirrors.' Haku thought.

"_**Special Technique: Demonic Ice Mirrors"**_

'What is this technique?' Kurenai thought.

"That's an Advanced Bloodline ability, isn't it?" Naruto asked Zabuza.

"Yeah, Haku has the ability to manipulate water. I take it that you've heard about what happened to all the people who had bloodline abilities in the Mist?" Zabuza asked.

"People in the Mist always used those with Advanced Bloodlines during Civil Wars. They were eventually blames for bringing misfortune and war to the country. Because of that, people of Advanced Bloodlines were hunted down and killed." Naruto answered.

"That is correct. I took Haku in when he was unwanted and I trained him to be my tool. He has the ability to shut his heart at will and become a strong shinobi, but he is also too kind." Zabuza replied.

Haku formed the Demonic Ice Mirrors and mirrors of ice started to form around Shiro. Shiro looked at the mirrors in confusion and waited to see what would happen next.

"Kurenai, wasn't it?" Haku asked from one of the mirrors.

"Yes?" Kurenai answered.

"Do not enter the mirrors. Stay behind the mirrors and fight using Genjutsu. I believe that even though Ninjutsu doesn't work and Taijutsu is hard to use against him, Genjutsu should still be pretty effective." Haku said, grabbing a few acupuncture needles from his pouch.

Haku started to go out of one of the mirrors and threw several needles at Shiro. Shiro countered and attacked.

"_**Ice Element: Swallow Attack"**_

The ice attack flew straight towards Haku and Haku entered the mirror before the ice attack hit. Haku then emerged out of the mirror and used a modified version of the teleportation technique to move from one mirror to another. Every time Haku does this, he also releases several needles out hoping to hit Shiro in a vital point.

From outside the ice mirrors, Kurenai started to form some hand seals and used a Genjutsu.

"_**Illusionary Technique: Hearing Impairment"**_

"Zabuza, after this Genjutsu is cast, try to attack from behind using your sword" Haku yelled after hearing Kurenai cast the Genjutsu.

Kurenai waited for the Genjutsu to take effect. Zabuza heard Haku yell and went over to go for an attack.

"Naruto, stay here. You'll be backup incase something goes wrong." Zabuza yelled.

Naruto nodded his head and stayed at his current location.

"Something's wrong." Kurenai mutter.

She didn't hear her own voice.

"Can I hear?" she asked to herself.

She couldn't hear any of the fighting that was going on and she couldn't even hear her own voice.

'This is not good. It looks as though my Genjutsu was somehow sent back to me.' Kurenai analyzed. 'Could it be that armor?'

Zabuza now entered the mirrors and was about to attack Shiro.

"Zabuza wait, that's an illusion." Haku yelled out.

Zabuza was too late and attacked the illusion. The sword went through the illusionary Shiro and the real Shiro appeared behind Zabuza. Shiro gave a swipe of his iron claws and the attack managed to Haku, who pushed away Zabuza in the last second. The claws hit Haku across the middle of the back and the back started bleeding profusely. The Demonic Ice Mirrors shattered and became shards of ice.

"Haku, NO!" Naruto yelled.

Kurenai was still confused with what was going on since her hearing has been impaired. She saw that Haku was on the ground bleeding and went over to help, not sensing that Shiro was already behind her.

"I see that you tried to cast a Genjutsu. That won't work on this armor." Shiro replied as he was about to thrust his iron claws into Kurenai. Kurenai kept running and saw that Zabuza had thrown his sword in her direction. Kurenai clearly saw the sword and ducked right when Shiro was attacking. Shiro's attack missed and he because he tripped because he missed, Zabuza's sword went through the area he was at.

Kurenai turned around and saw that Shiro got up and was about to attack her again. Naruto appeared from behind Shiro and kicked him hard on the head. Shiro was sent flying a few feet away from the fighters and Kurenai used this time to dispel her Genjutsu. Having her hearing back, she moved over to Haku and started to use a medical technique that she learned from a friend of hers.

She used up most of her chakra considering that medical techniques consumes a lot of it, and went down to the ground exhausted. This was all she could do at the moment because her Genjutsus were useless against him. She fell into unconsciousness because of chakra exhaustion which she forgot about when she healed Haku.

'This isn't good. Naruto thought. Shino's out of bugs until Shiro is defeated, Kurenai used most of her chakra to heal Haku and is now unconscious, and Hinata is frozen in ice. Looks like only Zabuza and I are the only ones remaining.' Naruto thought analytically.

Shiro got up and started to cast a Ninjutsu technique after finishing off the hand seals.

"_**Ice Element: Piercing Dragon Fierce Tiger"**_

A giant ice tiger came forth from the ice of Haku's mirrors and the ice from the bridge that Shiro caused earlier. The tiger ran forth and was heading straight towards Naruto. Naruto countered by using a water technique.

"_**Water Element: Water Dragon Missile"**_

The water serpent collided with the tiger and the water serpent turned into ice and shattered. Naruto was now too weak to dodge the ice tiger and waited for the attack to hit, closing his eyes and waiting for the inevitable. A few seconds later, Naruto was wondering why the attack never hit. Naruto looked up and saw that Zabuza took the attack for Naruto and his body was mostly covered in ice.

"Why did you do that?" Naruto asked, tears showing in his eyes.

"You are the son of my only friend in the seven swordsmen. I owed her a debt that could never be paid." Zabuza said as he fell into unconsciousness.

Naruto cried and saw that Shiro was going after the now unconscious Zabuza. Naruto moved in front of Zabuza and started to form the Rasengan. Naruto formed the full version and launched the attack onto Shiro's chest.

Shiro's armor was repelling the Rasengan a little but failed when the Rasengan broke through the barrier and the Rasengan hit Shiro straight at the heart. The Rasengan started to pierce through the skin and soon ripped up Shiro's heart. Shiro died almost instantly.

Naruto released his hand from Shiro's body and realized what he had done. Naruto had just made his first kill and wasn't too sure how to react. Naruto decided to deal with the feelings later as he checked up on Zabuza. Naruto saw that Zabuza was still alive and tore the ice that was on his body. When Naruto tore through the ice, Zabuza awoken and saw that a kunai was thrown towards Naruto. Zabuza pushed Naruto out of the way and the kunai hit Zabuza on the left bicep, rendering it useless. A couple more were thrown almost immediately and because he was still recovering from the attack, he couldn't dodge the kunai and turned his body. One kunai missed while the third hit his right bicep.

Zabuza and Naruto looked at the source of the kunais and saw that Gatou had a bunch of thugs lined up and a couple of ninja.

"Naruto, give me a kunai." Zabuza asked, growling in frustration.

"Why?" Naruto asked, grabbing a kunai from his pouch and tossing it to Zabuza.

"I'm going to show them what a real demon is about." Zabuza said after he caught the Kunai with his mouth. Naruto's eyes widened when he realized what Zabuza was going to do.

Zabuza started running towards Gatou not caring about his own life anymore since he was going to die sooner or later. A bunch of thugs grabbed their weapons and tried to strike Zabuza. A few weapons pierced Zabuza's skin while Zabuza killed several thugs. A minute later, Zabuza made it to where Gatou was at and Gatou tried to run away. Zabuza caught up with Gatou when Gatou stopped at the incomplete portion of the bridge. Zabuza slashed him a few times before cutting his head off. For a brief second before Gatou dies, he thought he saw that it was a devil that was killing him instead of a human. Gatou's head and body flew off from the bridge and landed into the waters below, sinking down for all eternity.

The thugs that Gatou hired saw that Zabuza was still alive after all the attacks they did. They were tempted to attack Zabuza but failed when Naruto gained their attention.

"Hey you!" Naruto yelled to the thugs.

All the thugs looked at Naruto.

"If you want to fight someone, fight against me." Naruto said loudly.

"_**Shadow Replication Technique"**_

Naruto created five shadow clones and moved into a fighting position.

'I hope they don't realize that I won't be able to last for very long' Naruto thought.

The thugs saw that Naruto wasn't that big of a threat and started to rush towards him. Before they even started however, an arrow landed in front of them. Everyone looked at the source of the arrow and saw that it was fired by Inari, who was backed by the entire village he lived in.

"Hey Naruto, hope I made it." Inari yelled.

Naruto smiled and the thugs started to run away.

Naruto started to walk towards Zabuza and saw that Zabuza didn't have very long to live.

"Zabuza!" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto, before I die, there's two things I need you to do." Zabuza said, as he started to cough up blood.

Naruto nodded his head.

"First, I want you to keep an eye on Haku. He will be devastated when he finds out that I'm dead."

"I promise I'll keep an eye on him." Naruto stated, never one to take back his words.

"And second, take the Kubikiri Houcho and train in the art of swordsmanship. It was what your mother would've wanted." Zabuza said, falling onto the ground, lifeless.

"You knew my mom! Who was she? What was she like?" Naruto asked.

Naruto saw that Zabuza wasn't standing anymore and that he was on the ground dead. Naruto let out tears from his eyes as he saw that Zabuza was dead.

Haku woke up not long after and saw that Naruto was standing alone, looking at a figure on the ground. Haku saw that the figure was Zabuza and that he was dead. Haku couldn't take it and fainted as he was still low on energy. From his unconscious form, tears were streaming down his cheek as he rested.

* * *

Everything was peaceful after the events that happened on the bridge. Hinata recovered from the ice prison and was suffering a cold, Shino was glad to see that his bugs were back, Haku was still morning Zabuza a little after they buried him, Kurenai recovered quickly, and Naruto was practicing carrying the sword that Zabuza used.

A month later, the bridge was complete and team 8 as well as Haku were crossing the bridge and heading away from Wave Country. During the month, Hinata master tree walking and was practicing water walking. Shino increased his taijutsu a little and found another species of bugs that he could use during future battles. Haku got over Zabuza's death and wanted to travel with Naruto and the others. Kurenai practiced a little on everything and while Naruto could carry the sword that Zabuza had, he still had quite a long way to go before he can use the weapon to its fullest extent.

"What should we name this bridge?" Inari asked as he and his family watches Naruto and the rest leave.

"The bridge will be called the Heroes Bridge. I named it after the heroes who protected the bridge." Tazuna replied.

* * *

**PREPERATION FOR THE CHUUNIN EXAMS**

**Please Review**


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